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REMINISCENCES 

OF 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier's 

LIFE  AT  OAK  KNOLL 

DANVERS,  MASS. 


By  MRS.  ABBY  J.  WOODMAN 


READ     BEFORE    THE     ESSEX     INSTITUTE    ON    THE     ONE    HUNDREDTH 

ANNIVERSARY     OF     THE      BIRTH     OF     JOHN    GREENLEAF    WHITTIER, 

WITH    A    LIST    OF    THE    FIRST    EDITIONS,    PORTRAITS,    ENGRAVINGS, 

MANUSCRIPTS,    AND    PERSONAL   RELICS    OF    JOHN    GREENLEAF 

WHITTIER,     EXHIBITED    AT    THE     ESSEX    INSTITUTE, 

DECEMBER  17,  1907  TO  JANUARY  31,  1908 


SALEM,  MASS. 

THE   ESSEX   INSTITUTE 

1908 


COPYRIGHT,  1908 

BY 
THE  ESSEX  INSTITUTE 


TWO   HUNDRED   COPIES    PRINTED 


P5 


REMINISCENCES  OF 

JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER'S  LIFE 

AT  OAK  KNOLL,  DANVERS. 


In  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-five,  John 
Greenleaf  Whittier  expressed  a  desire  to  become  a  member 
of  the  household  of  Col.  Edmund  Johnson,  and  in  the 
following  year,  in  the  month  of  April,  he  gave  up  his 
home  in  Amesbury,  and,  with  many  of  his  most  cherished 
personal  effects,  removed  to  "  Oak  Knoll,"  in  Danvers. 
He  was  remotely  connected  by  kinship  with  Edmund 
Johnson ;  both  gentlemen  were  directly  descended  from 
ancient  Quaker  ancestors,  Joseph  Peaslee  and  his  wife 
Mary  Johnson  ;  and  he  was  doubly  a  cousin  to  Col.  John- 
son's wife,  Phebe  Whittier ;  their  fathers  were  brothers, 
and  their  mothers  were  cousins  in  the  first  degree. 

Edmund  Johnson  was  Mr.  Whittier's  senior  by  several 
years,  and  survived  but  one  year  after  Mr.  Whittier  came 
into  his  family,  and  Mr.  Whittier,  because  of  his  age  and 
chronic  state  of  invalidism,  soon  came  in  many  ways  to 

(3) 


4  JOHN  GKEENLEAF   WHITTIER'S 

occupy  that  place,  in  the  careful  regard  of  the  daughters, 
made  vacant  by  the  death  of  their  beloved  father. 

The  following  summer,  Mr.  Whittier  spent  a  week  at 
the  Isle  of  Shoals,  where  he  met  his  friend  and  admirer, 
Mr.  Nathaniel  Thayer  of  Boston  and  Lancaster,  Massachu- 
setts. Mr.  Thayer  was  but  little  acquainted  with  the 
localities  of  Danvers,  and  he  asked  Mr.  Whittier  if  he 
would  not  prefer  a  residence  nearer  to  the  city  of  Salem, 
at  the  same  time  remarking  that  the  estate  called  "  Kern- 
wood  "  was  then  for  sale,  and  that  he  would  be  pleased 
to  see  Mr.  Whittier  permanently  residing  there,  intimating 
the  pleasure  it  would  give  him  to  purchase  the  estate  for 
Mr.  Whittier.  Mr.  Whittier  made  a  somewhat  evasive 
reply,  not  really  appreciating  Mr.  Thayer's  generous  inten- 
tions. A  few  days  after  Mr.  Whittier's  return  to  "  Oak 
Knoll,"  he  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Thayer  containing 
the  offer  of  "  Kernwood  "  to  him  as  a  free  gift,  should  he 
prefer  to  reside  there  rather  than  at  "  Oak  Knoll."  Mr. 
Whittier  consulted  the  family  in  regard  to  it,  and  learning 
that  they  preferred  to  retain  the  independence  of  their 
own  home,  he  gratefully  declined  his  friend's  most  gener- 
ous offer.  Although  Mr.  Whittier  strongly  desired  to 
become  a  joint  proprietor  of  "  Oak  Knoll,"  at  the  time  of 
its  purchase  from  Mr.  William  A.  Lander,  in  the  year 
eighteen  hundred  seventy-five,  yet,  in  accordance  with  the 
wise  counsels  of  Col.  Johnson,  he  came  to  his  home,  in 
Danvers,  untrammelled  by  any  business  complications,  in 
order  that  he  might  be  as  free  to  go  from  our  home,  as  he 
was  always  made  free  and  welcome  to  its  hospitalities.  In 
the  quiet  atmosphere  of  "  Oak  Knoll,"  Mr.  Whittier  cast 
aside  the  cares  of  domestic  life.  The  years  of  advancing 
age  glided  peacefully  onward,  past  the  limit  of  three  score 
years  and  ten,  and  four  score  years  brought  to  him  no 
realizing  sense  of  its  prophecy  of  labor  and  of  weakness. 
Aside  from  his  correspondence,  which  was  large  and  some- 
times a  little  wearisome,  he  was  free  from  annoying  cares 
in  the  present,  and  bearing  no  apparent  burdens  of  regret 
for  that  which  "  might  have  been  "  in  the  past,  the  peace 
of  his  protracted  life  was  like  unto  the  flow  of  a  majestic 
river,  which,  past  the  shoals  and  narrows  of  its  impetuous 


LIFE   AT   OAK  KNOLL.  5 

course,  moves  smoothly  on  beneath  the  shade  of  bending 
trees,  by  gently  sloping  banks  of  verdure,  until  it  slowly 
"  rounds  into  calm." 

When  asked  by  a  gentleman  who  was  preparing  a  paper 
on  the  life  of  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  to  be  read  before 
a  public  audience,  what  he  might  say  of  his  residence  in 
Danvers,  Mr.  Whittier  replied,  "  Say,  it  is  my  home.  I 
retain  my  legal  residence  in  Amesbury,  and  I  go  there  to 
vote,  but  my  home  is  at  '  Oak  Knoll.'  "  He  loved  the 
quiet  of  "  Oak  Knoll,"  its  beautiful  groves,  its  broad 
lawns,  and  its  quaint  old  gardens.  He  took  especial 
delight  in  their  winding  walks  and  fragrant  borders 
of  box.  The  tall  hedges  of  roses  greeted  him  with 
pleasant  recollections  of  those  which  bloomed  beside  his 
mother's  door.  The  peonies  shook  their  scarlet  robes  before 
him,  and  the  crimson  balm  and  yellow  daffodils  were 
quick  reminders  of  a  garden,  far  away  in  the  past,  where 
peonies,  and  balm,  and  mints,  and  daffodils  had  blossomed 
in  his  childhood's  home  in  Haverhill. 

Mr.  Whittier  was  fond  of  domestic  animals ;  cats,  dogs, 
cows,  and  horses  were  all  his  pets,  and  all  were  responsive 
to  his  call.  Many  of  them  received  appropriate  memorial 
rhymes,  after  their  timely  or  untimely  "  takings  off," 
which  are  preserved  as  mementoes  of  their  author's  rare 
humor  and  kindly  nature,  and  of  his  responsive  disposition 
to  enter  sympathetically  into  the  small  details  and  innocent 
recreations  of  country  life. 

He  took  much  pleasure  in  driving  along  the  country 
roads  and  secluded  byways  of  the  town,  until  he  had 
become  familiar  with  the  surrounding  scenery.  Pausing 
long  upon  the  hill-tops,  he  inhaled  their  pure  atmosphere 
with  delight,  and  refreshed  his  soul  with  the  rich  inspira- 
tions which  Nature  presented  in  her  broader  landscapes. 
His  keen  powers  of  observation  encompassed  everything : 
the  wild  flowers  by  the  wayside  and  the  moss-grey  walls 
that  sheltered  them,  the  majestic  trees,  the  herds  of  cattle 
upon  the  hills,  the  brooks  which  flowed  through  grassy 
meadows,  and  the  little  pools  which  mirrored  the  sunshine, 
the  patches  of  brown  earth  turned  by  the  ploughshare  to 
the  fertilizing  influences  of  sun  and  dew,  the  long  grey 


6  JOHN   GEEENLEAP   WHITTIER'S 

lines  of  dividing  walls,  and,  over  all,  the  broad  arch  of 
the  summer  sky,  each  and  all  conveyed  to  him  a  full  sense 
of  the  beauty  and  the  joy  of  life.  Beautiful  and  grand 
scenes  in  Nature  were  never  forgotten,  and  the  memory  of 
them  was  always,  to  him,  a  source  of  fresh  delight.  The 
lawns  of  "  Oak  Knoll,"  the  groves,  and  the  meadow  paths, 
the  mossy  nooks  where  wild  flowers  grew  and  song  birds 
had  their  haunts,  renewed  their  grace  for  him  with  every 
fresh  baptism  of  the  morning.  The  last  time  his  foot- 
steps wandered  in  the  familiar  paths,  he  returned  with  his 
hands  filled  with  wild  flowers,  remarking,  as  he  came,  "  I 
think  I  have  never  heard  the  birds  sing  so  loudly,  or  so 
sweetly  before." 

After  Mr.  Whittier  passed  his  seventieth  birthday  he 
seemed  to  realize  that  he  was  standing — 

u  Beside  that  milestone  where  the  level  sun, 
Nigh  unto  setting,  sheds  his  last  low  rays 
On  word  and  work  irrevocably  done." 

When  invited  to  drive  over  the  picturesque  hills  of  the 
town,  he  often  remarked,  "  I  know  just  how  everything 
looks,  we  should  see  nothing  more  beautiful  then  what  we 
have  at  home.  I  am  satisfied  with  this." 

There  is  a  small  precipitous  elevation  in  the  pastures 
which  bears  the  name  of  "  Cedar  Knoll."  It  is  approached 
by  a  well-worn  foot-path  through  a  shaded  and  grassy  lane. 
It  overlooks  the  fields,  orchards,  and  wooded  areas  of  the 
estate,  and  is  covered  with  a  low  growth  of  cedars  and 
other  wild  shrubbery.  The  moss-covered  rocks  afford  but 
scanty  room  for  vegetation,  but  the  crimson  columbines 
hang  their  drooping  blossoms  among  them,  the  ferns  thrust 
their  sword-like  blades  from  every  crevice,  the  white 
bloom  of  the  lowly  saxifrage  sends  up  sweet  odors  from 
the  ledgy  surface,  and  the  monotone  of  bees  is  heard  in 
the  golden  bells  of  the  barberry.  There  was  no  month  in 
the  year  when  the  grey  rocks  of  "  Cedar  Knoll "  did  not 
greet  the  coming  of  his  footsteps, — when  the  solemn 
silence  of  the  cedars  did  not  invite  the  reverent  responses 
of  his  soul  to  that  sense  of  quietude  which  is  the  angelus 
of  Nature. 


LIFE  AT  OAK  KNOLL.  7 

Mr.  Whit  tier  was  an  ardent  lover  of  Nature,  as  is  shown 
by  the  many  poems  which  he  wrote  in  her  praise.  How 
many  friends  have  given  thanks  for  the  inspiration  of 
him  who  gave  to  them  such  vivid  portrayals  of  her  satisfy- 
ing beauty  and  grandeur  !  How  many,  whose  feet  have 
never  walked  where  his  had  trod  so  often  among  the 
mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  have  beheld  their  majesty 
through  the  medium  of  his  verse ;  have  seen,  through  his 
eyes,  the  purple  glow  of  the  sunsets  which  enfold  those 
lofty  heights,  and  have  felt  themselves  borne  heavenward 
on  the  spiritual  atmosphere  of  his  words,  which  are  as  the 
breath  and  voice  of  those  everlasting  hills ! 

"  Touched  by  a  light  that  has  no  name, 

A  glory  never  sung, 
Aloft  on  sky  and  mountain  walls 

Are  God's  great  pictures  hung. 
What  unseen  altars  crown  those  hills 

That  reach  up  stair  on  stair; 
What  eyes  look  through,  what  white  wings  fan 

Those  purple  veils  of  air." 

Every  season  of  the  year  possessed  for  Mr.  Whittier  its 
peculiar  charm,  and  in  each,  he  was  often  heard  to  exclaim, 
when  beholding  some  lovely  aspect  of  nature,  "  I  never 
saw  it  so  beautiful  here  before."  The  autumn  of  the  year 
is  so  suggestive  of  decay  and  of  death,  that  unto  many  peo- 
ple its  coming  is  unwelcome.  It  brings  to  them  the 
"  Melancholy  days,  the  saddest  of  the  year."  Not  thus 
was  it  regarded  by  Mr.  Whittier.  He  rejoiced  in  its 
wealth  of  color,  its  golden  sunsets,  and  veils  of  misty 
splendor.  In  the  ripeness  and  abundance  of  autumn,  he 
beheld  the  realization  of  the  fair  promises  of  the  spring 
and  summer  time,  the  crowning  rewards  of  the  passing 
year.  Every  shrub  and  tree  possessed  for  him  its  own 
distinctive  charm.  The  maples,  in  their  mottled  hues 
from  green  to  gold  and  scarlet ;  the  **  painted  beeches," 
from  lightest  tint  of  sunshine  to  the  ribbed  and  russet 
hues  of  the  fallen  leaf,  or  the  silvery  sheen  of  winter ;  the 
blood-red  oaks,  and  yellow  hickories ;  the  glowing  sassa- 
fras and  the  sombre  ash ;  the  rich  gold  of  the  walnuts  ; 
the  amber  birches,  quivering  like  an  entangled  mist ;  and 
the  stately  chestnuts,  with  broad  arms  reaching  out  over 


8  JOHN  GBEENLEAF   WHITTIEE'S 

groups  of  crimson  sumach, — all  hung  their  banners  in  the 
hazy  quiet  of  the  Indian  summer,  and  drooped  and  folded 
them  away  without  appeal  for  sympathy,  or  sadness  for 
their  fallen  glories,  unto  him  who  watched  their  silent 
passing.  Such  dissolving  views  of  Nature  were  a  delight 
to  him.  He  beheld  in  them  the  restful  retirement  into 
sleep  which  awaits  a  resurrection  to  renewed  existence, 
and  not  unfrequently  he  was  heard  to  express  a  wish  that 
he  might  sometimes  express  his  sentiments  in  a  poem 
which  would  convey  to  others  his  grateful  appreciation  of 
the  season  of  autumn,  and  help  to  dispel  the  feeling  of 
sadness  which  it  conveys  to  the  minds  of  many. 

The  oak  tree,  from  its  position  upon  the  knoll  in  front 
of  the  house,  gave  to  his  mind  the  suggestion  of  naming 
the  estate  "  Oak  Knoll."  This  tree  retains  its  foliage  long 
after  the  elms  and  many  other  trees  are  bare.  Its  leaves 
become  like  disks  of  gold,  and  when  they  are  fully  ripened 
they  "  stand  not  upon  the  order  of  their  going,"  but  fall 
in  a  day,  like  the  dropping  of  a  great  curtain.  If  Mr. 
Whittier  was  away  from  home  when  this  occurred,  he  was 
duly  notified  by  letter,  usually  in  response  to  his  enqui- 
ries ;  for,  when  the  oak  tree  upon  the  knoll  was  bare,  then 
autumn  had  departed  and  winter  was  at  the  open  door. 

Mr.  Whittier  loved  the  warmth  and  cheer  of  sunshine, 
and  looked  forward  to  the  passing  of  clouds  and  storms, 
with  a  cheerful  expectancy  of  the  brightness  which  they 
but  obscured,  never  doubting  the  existence  of  the  silver 
lining,  however  it  might  be  hidden  by  the  gloom  of  the 
heavens  or  the  disappointments  of  human  life.  If  the 
dawn  was  clear  he  never  failed  to  witness  the  rising  of 
the  sun.  From  the  windows  of  his  chamber  he  watched 
the  grey  east  change  to  crimson  and  pearl,  and  greeted  the 
uprising  of  the  sun  with  the  grateful  reverence  of  one 
who  beheld  in  its  glory  a  repetition  of  that  miracle  of  cre- 
ation when  night  gave  way  to  day,  in  response  to  the 
Divine  command,  "  Let  there  be  light."  As  the  morning 
brought  to  him  renewed  strength  for  the  day,  so  the 
evening  came  with  benedictions  for  the  night.  He  opened 
wide  the  "  Windows  of  his  Soul,"  and  received  the  full 
baptism  of  the  setting  sun,  until  his  countenance  glowed 


LIFE   AT   OAK   KNOLL.  ,    9 

and  his  eyes  shone  with  the  peace  of  one  whose  cup  of 
thankfulness  was  full.  In  the  friendly  quiet  of  the  sunset 
hour  he  realized — 

"  A  presence  ever  near; 
Through  the  deep  silence  of  the  flesh, 
It  reached  the  inward  ear." 

After  the  sunset  came  the  social  evening  hours.  Mr. 
Whittier  passed  all  his  evenings  in  the  family  room,  never 
permitting  his  "  den  "  to  be  lighted,  lest  he  "  might  some- 
time come  to  spend  his  evenings  there  in  solitude."  After 
supper  it  was  bis  custom  to  sit  for  a  few  moments  in 
silence,  with  hands  folded,  before  the  open  wood  fire, — 
moments  which  may  have  been  of  retrospection  ;  a  silent 
response  to  the  spiritual  calls  of  his  nature. 

In  family  intercourse  he  was  often  humorous  and  some- 
times quite  facetious,  using  the  quaint  and  local  phrase  of 
his  boyhood, — the  Friendly  "  thee "  without  its  proper 
distinction  of  case.  He  was  conscious  of  its  abuse,  but 
remarked,  "  I  use  it  so  because  my  mother  did." 

Generally  he  was  considered  to  be  a  very  diffident,  or, 
as  some  have  said,  a  "  very  shy  man,"  and  easily  discon- 
certed by  the  presence  of  strangers.  A  certain  reserve  of 
manner  was  peculiar  to  him,  but  the  diffidence  resulting 
from  a  lack  of  moral  or  physical  courage  was  foreign  to 
his  nature.  A  certain  absence  of  spontaneity  debarred 
him  oftentimes  from  disclosing  to  many  that  geniality 
which  was  inherent  in  his  nature.  His  unquestioning  good 
fellowship  with  humanity  in  general  often  betrayed  him 
into  confidences  which  involved  a  too  lavish  expenditure 
of  his  sympathies,  recognition  of  which  admonished  bin\ 
at  other  times  to  give  heed  to  the  injunction,  "Put  a  bit 
in  thy  mouth  and  a  bridle  on  thy  tongue."  Thus  at  times 
he  was  very  frank  and  ingenuous,  while  at  others  he  was 
reticent.  He  sometimes  hid  himself  behind  the  latter 
mood  when  he  felt  a  disinclination  for  social  intercourse. 
His  writings  give  no  evidence  of  a  lack  of  moral  courage, 
and  his  life,  in  general,  presented  few  opportunities  for 
the  exercise  of  physical  courage.  There  were,  however, 
frequent  occasions  during  the  earlier  struggles  for  the 


10  JOHN   GREBNLEAF  WHITTIBB'S 

abolition  of  slavery,  which  called  for  an  exhibition  of  both, 
and  in  neither  was  he  found  to  be  wanting. 

The  fact  that  Mr.  Whittier  never  addressed  a  public 
audience  was  not  because  he  was  afraid  of  the  sound  of 
his  own  voice,  but  because  there  was  not  given  to  him  the 
power  of  a  ready  expression  of  the  sentiments  which  had 
firm  possession  of  his  mind,  but  which  he  could  not  read- 
ily materialize  in  speech.  There  are  those  who  can  well 
believe  that  had  not  Mr.  Whittier  been  a  "  Friend  by 
conviction,  as  well  as  by  birthright,"  instead  of  being  the 
"  Minstrel  of  the  North,"  in  our  late  Civil  War,  he  would 
have  been  a  leader  in  the  midst  of  battle. 

In  the  estimation  of  those  who  knew  him  well  he  was 
not  one  who  was  subject  to  seasons  of  loneliness  and  de- 
pression. He  doubtless  realized  his  solitary  family  con- 
dition, after  the  deaths  of  his  mother  and  sister  Elisabeth. 
In  a  letter  written  in  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-one,  he 
wrote  from  Amesbury :  "  The  circle  of  my  old  friends  and 
neighbors  here  is  now  very  small  and  I  seem  to  feel  more 
like  a  stranger  than  ever."  His  great  mental  resources 
dispelled  the  ennui  of  a  lonely  life.  It  is  only  the  Cru- 
soes  of  mankind — men  whose  instinctive  physical  forces 
overcome  and  submerge  the  finer  capacities  of  the  mind, 
who  exclaim,  "  O,  Solitude,  where  are  the  charms  that 
Sages  have  found  in  thy  face  !  "  Men,  such  as  was  Whit- 
tier, count  those  hours  good  when  they  can  retire  into  their 
closets  and  shut  their  doors  against  the  confusing  activi- 
ties of  life.  Sentimental  gossips  are  apt  to  project  their 
own  atmosphere  around  the  objects  of  their  solicitude  and 
take  a  melancholy  pleasure  in  expressing  concern  and 
sympathy  for  conditions  which  have  no  real  existence. 
Those  who  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  a  higher  apprecia- 
tion of  the  true  values  of  life,  and  of  the  pleasures  and  re- 
wards of  its  seasons  of  meditation,  recognize  the  wisdom 
of  a  sage  in  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Ellis,  of  Boston,  who  said  to 
his  friends,  "  Solitude  is  not  loneliness."  Mr.  Whittier 
expressed  the  same  sentiment  in  his  lines  : 

"For  Nature  is  not  solitude, 
Her  many  hands  reach  out  to  us, 
Her  many  tongues  are  garrulous. 
She  will  not  leave  our  senses  still — 
But  drags  them  captive  to  her  will." 


LIFE  AT   OAK  KNOLL.  11 

Those  who  think  much  and  deeply,  require  less  compan- 
ionship from  others  than  do  they  who  live  upon  the  sur- 
face of  thought.  What  appeared  to  some  of  his  friends 
to  be  hours  of  loneliness  were  oftentimes  seasons  of  con- 
verse with  his  imagination ;  seasons  in  which  the  clear- 
eyed  angels  of  inspiration  attuned  his  lyre  to  songs  of 
prophecy  and  praise. 

Mr.  Whittier  spent  little  time  in  moody  repinings  over 
the  past  or  in  idle  speculations  of  the  future.  Like  others, 
he  bore  the  crosses  which  humanity  entails  upon  all.  In 
his  draught  of  life  the  bitter  was  mingled  with  the  sweet, 
but  the  pangs  of  sorrow  for  the  loss  of  friends  were  not 
bereft  of  consolation.  The  lamp  which  illumined  his 
darkness  was  "  The  Inward  Light,"  and  by  its  guidance 
he  walked  through  vales  of  sorrow,  fearing  no  evil ;  some- 
times it  may  have  been  with  faltering  steps,  but  never  fall- 
ing by  the  way,  being  sustained  and  strengthened  by  his 
perfect  faith  and  trust  in  the  "  Eternal  Goodness." 

Mr.  Whittier  was  merciful  in  his  judgments  as  he 
hoped  for  mercy ;  and  forgiving  of  evil  as  he  hoped  to  be 
forgiven ;  and  yet,  with  all  his  wisdom  and  his  virtues,  he 
was  a  man  impatient  of  restraints,  somewhat  over  sensi- 
tive in  disposition,  and  often  abrupt  in  his  disapproval  of 
sentiments  derogatory  to  his  own.  There  were  not  want- 
ing occasions  when  his  earnestness  called  for  forbearance 
on  the  part  of  others,  but  his  anger  was  as  the  "  Flint 
bears  fire,"  a  moment  of  reflection,  or  a  brief  silence, 
would  call  to  his  countenance  the  milder  glow  of  self-re- 
buke. He  felt  keenly  the  limitations  of  his  nature.  In  a 
letter  he  wrote,  "  The  story  which  C.  has  sent  me  is  really 
Dr.  Jekyl's  case.  I  wonder  whether  we  have  not  the  pos- 
sibilities of  this  duality." 

Mr.  Whittier's  birthdays  were  always  observed  as  holi- 
days at  "Oak  Knoll,"  where  during  the  last  sixteen  years 
of  his  life,  with  three  exceptions,  he  received  his  friends. 
In  1889,  there  was  the  gloom  of  a  recent  sorrow  in  the 
home  and  Mr.  Whittier  passed  his  82d  birthday  at  Ames- 
bury,  in  his  old  home,  under  the  auspices  of  Judge  and 
Mrs.  Gate  who  occupied  his  house  in  that  town.  In  1891, 
he  was  at  New  bury  port,  where  he  had  been  detained  by 


12  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTTER'S 

illness  in  the  home  of  his  life  long  friend  and  relative 
Joseph  Cartland  ;  and  in  1882,  Mr.  Whittier  spent  the 
winter  with  the  family  in  Boston.  Although  his  birth- 
day anniversaries  occurred  in  the  winter,  the  day  was 
never  so  unpropitious  that  it  did  not  bring  some  tokens  of 
love  and  remembrance  and  a  few  friends  with  congratu- 
lations for  its  happy  return.  With  few  exceptions,  how- 
ever, large  parties  came  to  greet  him,  bringing  fruits  from 
every  clime  and  rare  and  lovely  flowers  with  many  other 
appreciative  tokens  of  love  and  esteem  and  oftentimes 
reverence,  all  of  which  cheered  and  warmed  his  heart  and 
lightened  the  burdens  of  his  age.  His  correspondence 
was  very  large  at  those  seasons.  Letters  of  congratulation 
came  from  all  parts  of  our  country  and  many  bore  the 
postmarks  of  foreign  lands.  Dr.  Furness  of  Philadelphia 
and  Rev.  Theodore  Cuyler  were  for  many  years  his  con- 
stant correspondents.  Although  a  little  wearied  when  his 
guests  had  departed,  there  was  always  a  "  pleased  surprise  " 
upon  his  face,  while  he  enjoyed  the  fragrance  and  the 
beauty  of  the  rare  flowers  heaped  in  profusion  around  him. 
Some  tokens  of  regard  were  of  a  more  practical  character 
Such  was  the  offering  brought  to  him  by  Gov.  Ames  on 
his  eightieth  birthday  upon  which  occasion  his  guests 
through  the  day  numbered  between  five  and  six  hundred. 
Gov.  Ames  duly  recognized  the  pen  as  Mr*  Whittier's 
more  appropriate  instrument  of  labor,  but  he  brought  to 
him,  on  that  day,  a  specimen  of  his  own  manufacture,  a 
highly  polished  shovel.  Although  the  pen  is  mighty  to 
preserve  the  vast  records  of  the  past,  the  shovel  is  often 
requisite  to  break  the  crusts  of  Time,  and  lay  bare  the 
secrets  of  antiquity.  Mr.  Whittier  had  previously  re- 
quested Gov.  Ames  to  send  a  contribution  of  his  shovels 
to  Amelia  B.  Edwards,  who  had  made  known  to  her  friends 
in  America  her  need  of  those  instruments  in  the  continu- 
ance of  her  explorations  in  the  East.  The  Governor  re- 
sponded to  the  request  and  brought  to  Mr.  Whittier  a 
shovel  which  shone  like  silver.  It  was  duly  inscribed 
and  hung  beside  his  chamber  door,  a  pleasant  reminder  of 
the  pleasantry  of  his  eightieth  birthday.  Bearing  date  of 
1887,  there  occur  in  a  family  diary  these  items  : 


LIFE  AT   OAK   KNOLL.  13 

Dec.  17.  "  Elegant  flowers,  fruit,  cake,  coffee,  &c.,  &c. 
Everything  was  glorious  and  successful  for  Mr.  Whittier's 
birthday.  Greenleaf  happy  as  a  king." 

Dec.  18.  "Saturday  all  right; — Greenleaf  slept  well 
and  enjoyed  yesterday  in  retrospect." 

Mr.  Whittier  was  not  isolated,  while  he  lived  in  Dan- 
vers,  from  the  visitations,  almost  companionship  of  many 
friends  who  very  frequently  came  to  walk  with  him  or  to 
sit  in  his  cosy  little  room  where  he  sat  and  wrote  by  day, 
— his  "  den,"  and  not  his  "  study,"  for  he  said,  u  I  never 
study."  Among  those  frequent  visitors  were  his  friend, 
Charles  F.  Coffin  of  Lynn,  whom  he  loved  as  a  brother, 
Richard  P.  Waters  of  North  Beverly,  Col.  Albert  G. 
Browne  of  Salem,  Joseph  Nichols  of  Peabody,  and  John 
D.  Philbrick,  Deacon  Fowler  and  Dr.  William  Goldsmith 
of  Danvers — all  of  whom  passed  the  barriers  of  human  ex- 
istence before  him.  Many  others  who  survived  him  could 
speak  of  the  genial  warmth  of  the  reception  with  which 
he  always  welcomed  their  coming. 

Mr.  Whittier  received  many  visitors  during  his  residence 
at  "  Oak  Knoll."  They  came  to  see  him  from  every  part 
of  our  own  country  and  from  many  foreign  lands.  He 
loved  the  friends  of  his  youth  and  early  manhood,  with  a 
strength  of  affection  which  time  never  weakened  nor  old 
age  effaced,  and  whenever  they  came  to  see  him,  his  en- 
joyment was  real.  They  took  him  back,  beyond  the  strug- 
gles of  his  manhood,  to  the  delightful  companionship  of 
school-days,  when  the  wine  of  life  was  fresh  from  the  vin- 
tage and  fragrant  with  high  aspirations  and  fair  hopes  for 
the  future.  Among  these  visitors  were  Harriet  Minot 
Pitman  and  Samuel  and  Harriet  Winslow  Sewall.  They 
often  came  together  in  the  morning  and  spent  the  summer 
day  with  him,  wandering  through  the  groves  and  lawns, 
not  literally  «  hand  in  hand,"  but  with  hearts  in  unison, 
recalling  to  each  the  pleasant  memories  of  the  long  ago 
and  mingling  their  laughter  with  the  sad  refrain  of  tender 
memories  of  the  dear  friends  who  had  departed.  How 
genial  was  the  companionship  of  those  friends  and  how 
white  in  the  calendar  of  their  friendship  was  the  day  when 
they  met  together.  All  of  those  dear  friends  solved,  be- 


14  JOHN   GREENLEAF  WHITTIER'S 

fore  him,  the  mysteries  of  death  and  the  hereafter,  con- 
cerning which  they  held  much  wistful  converse. 

Hither  came  Celia  Thaxter  who  sang  so  sweetly  of  her 
Island  home,  from  which  she  departed  all  too  soon,  gliding 
away  like  a  white  mist  upon  the  broad  ocean  that  she 
loved,  yet  leaving  behind  a  lingering  trail  of  pleasant 
memories  for  those  who  loved  her  well.  Lucy  Larcom 
came  bringing  her  poems  and  wood-notes  from  the  wind- 
swept shores  of  Beverly.  Long  shall  her  memory  be  em- 
balmed in  the  fragrance  of  the  "  Wild  Roses  of  Cape  Ann." 

Many  visitors  came  as  pilgrims  to  a  shrine.  They  came 
as  strangers  to  grasp  his  hand  and,  departing,  bore  with 
them  the  impress  of  a  sympathetic  and  abiding  friendship. 
Of  such  was  Dorothea  Dix,  the  loving  and  beloved  phil- 
anthropist. She  spent  a  summer  as  a  welcome  guest  at 
the  Hospital  in  Danvers  and  Mr.  Whittier  saw  her  many 
times.  Their  companionship  was  a  delight  to  both  of 
them.  They  possessed  many  sentiments  in  common  and 
both  had  spent  the  greater  part  of  their  lives  in  the  right- 
ing of  wrong  and  in  the  amelioration  of  human  suffering. 
The  ministrations  of  one,  in  his  later  years,  had  regard 
more  particularly  to  the  spiritual,  and  the  other,  to  the 
material  necessities  of  life,  while  both  were  efficiently  in- 
terested in  all  good  works. 

"One  saw  the  heavenly,  one  the  human  guest, 
But  who  shall  say  which  loved  the  Master  best?" 

In  the  last  days  of  her  life,  Miss  Dix  wrote  to  "Oak 
Knoll":  "I  want  your  Phoebe  to  copy  for  me  that  heart- 
penetrating  poem  of  Mr.  Whittier's — "At Last.".  .  .  "I 
have  it  only  in  memory  now,  and  that  may  sometime  fail 
a  word  or  two."  The  poem  was  copied  and  sent  to  her 
where  she  was,  at  the  time,  ill  in  Trenton,  New  Jersey. 
She  never  allowed  the  copy  to  pass  beyond  her  hand  for 
nearly  two  years.  It  was  in  her  hands  by  day  and  be- 
neath her  pillow  by  night,  until  she  died.  Friends  who 
stood  around  her  coffin  at  Mount  Auburn,  listened  to  the 
poem  as  it  was  read  above  her  silent  form,  from  the  same 
worn  copy  that  had  been  her  solace  and  consolation  through 
her  long  illness,  and  then  it  was  laid  tenderly  in  her 
hands  and  buried  with  her. 


LIFE  AT   OAK   KNOLL.  15 

The  occasional  visits  of  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
were  always  gratifying  to  Mr.  Whittier.  They  met  with 
affectionate  greetings  and  joked  and  laughed  together  in 
the  care-free  overflow  of  minds  at  ease.  They  sat  by  the 
fireside,  or  walked  through  the  lawns  with  arms  entwined 
behind  each  others  backs, — rare  old  boys  whose  "  hearts 
were  young  again."  Mr.  Whittier  was  two  years  older 
than  Dr.  Holmes  and  he  delighted  in  claiming  the  prece- 
dence of  age.  "  Why  thee  are  but  a  boy  yet,  while  1  am 
now  four  score."  "  Ah,"  said  Dr.  Holmes,  "  I  called  up- 
on a  lady  yesterday  who  is  several  years  older  than  either 
of  us.  Confound  it,  Mr.  Whittier,  these  women  will  get 
the  better  of  us  some  way.  That's  the  reason  why  they 
hung  them  in  old  times.  It  was  the  only  way  the  men 
could  get  even  with  them."  On  another  occasion,  while 
they  sat  before  a  glowing  fire  on  a  chilly  autumn  day, 
Mr.  Whittier  referred  to  the  then  recent  publication  of 
Dr.  Holmes'  poem  "  The  Broomstick  Train".  Dr.  Holmes 
turned  toward  Mr.  Whittier,  with  his  most  genial  smile, 
exclaiming  "  Good,  isn't  it  ?"  "  Capital,"  replied  Mr.  Whit- 
tier, "  But  thee  forgot  one  thing."  "  Did  1  ?  What  is  it  ?" 
said  the  Doctor.  "  Why,"  replied  Whittier,  with  the  air 
of  one  bringing  a  serious  accusation  against  his  friend, 
"  Thee  gave  Beverly  her  beans  all  right,  but  thee  de- 
frauded Danvers  of  her  onions." 

In  the  summer  of  1885,  Paul  H.  Hayne,  the  poet  of 
South  Carolina,  came  to  "  Oak  Knoll"  with  his  gentle 
wife  to  spend  a  week  with  Mr.  Whittier.  Mr.  Hayne  was 
interested  in  the  legendary  lore  of  New  England  and  in 
the  early  New  England  life  and  Mr.  Whittier  happily  re- 
lated to  him  many  characteristic  stories  of  the  Puritanic 
days.  The  stern  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
courtly  Huguenots  of  South  Carolina,  were  not  unfairly 
represented  by  the  two  poets.  It  was  a  pleasant  though 
significant  companionship.  Mr.  Whittier  was  a  descen- 
dant of  the  early  Quakers,  and  a  strong  defender  of  the 
rights  of  Southern  bondmen,  and  his  poetic  phillippics  had 
done  much  to  deprive  of  home  and  worldly  fortune,  Mr. 
Hayne,  a  gentle  singer  of  the  Sunny  South,  whose  blood 
had  come  down  to  him  through  generations  of  a  proud  an 


16  JOHN   GBEBNLEAF  WHITTIER's 

cestry,  of  high  estate,  until  the  fortunes  of  a  civil  war  had 
reduced  his  lot  in  life  to  that  of  common  men.  Mr.  Hayne 
related  many  incidents  and  reminiscences  of  his  youth, 
which  called  from  Mr.  Whittier  an  amusing  experience  of 
his  own,  when  he  was  a  student  at  the  Haverhill  Academy. 
It  is  here  related  very  nearly  in  Mr.  Whittier's  own 
words. 

"There  is  but  little  doubt  that  at  the  age  of  twen- 
ty, I  felt  myself  to  be  a  real  poet, — somewhat  unknown 
to  fame,  but  sufficiently  acknowledged  as  such  by  the 
Committee  directing  the  dedication  of  the  New  Academy, 
for  them  to  invite  me  to  read  an  original  poem  on  that 
occasion.  Robert  Dinsmore,  an  old  Scotch  farmer  in 
Windham,  and  a  writer  of  rhyme  and  doggerel  verse,  was 
also  invited  to  do  the  same.  The  honor  of  leading  the 
procession  which  marched  through  the  streets  of  Haver- 
hill  to  the  new  Academy,  was  given  to  the  two  poets.  I 
often  laugh  when  I  recall  the  scene  to  memory.  The  hale 
old  Scotchman,  short  and  plethoric,  with  long  white  hair 
which  was  like  a  halo  to  his  ruddy  face, — his  uncertain 
step  and  bearing,  slightly  exhilarated  by  a  generous 
draught  of  old  Scotch  whiskey  before  we  started,  was 
something  of  a  contrast  to  me, — a  rather  tall  and  slender 
Quaker  lad,  in  Quaker  hat  and  coat,  and  half  frightened 
out  of  my  wits  by  the  honor  heaped  upon  me.  However, 
we  delivered  our  poems  all  right  and  I  am  thinking  that 
must  have  been  the  time  when  1  was  dubbed  "  The  Quaker 
Poet." 

In  September,  1889,  Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  whose  "  Light 
of  Asia"  has  reached  and  touched  the  heart  of  Christen- 
dom, came  to  "  Oak  Knoll"  and  spent  several  hours  in 
confidential  converse  with  Mr.  Whittier,  upon  the  potent 
themes  of  life  and  immortality.  Mr.  Whittier  was  deeply 
impressed  by  the  conversation  of  Sir  Edwin  Arnold, 
which  seemed  to  exercise  a  lasting  influence  over  his 
mind.  The  realistic  views  of  a  future  life,  which  the  re- 
ligious training  of  a  past  century  inculcated,  took  a  strong 
hold  upon  Mr.  Whittier's  youthful  mind  and,  in  a  degree, 
retained  their  influence  over  him  through  his  early  man- 
hood. His  "  Clear  Vision,"  and  other  subsequent  poems, 


LIFE   AT   OAK   KNOLL.  IT 

gave  glimpses  of  broader  views  and  nobler  conceptions  of 
God  and  of  the  Christ  in  man,  as  is  shown  in  his  poem  of 
"  Trinitas."  As  he  advanced  in  years  there  was  opened 
to  his  comprehension,  a  higher  plane  of  spiritual  develop- 
ment and  the  prejudices  of  his  youth  became  weakened, 
but  he  never  lost  his  faith  in  a  concious  existence  in  a 
future  life.  How  or  where  was  to  exist  that  life  of  the 
future,  was  not  made  clear  to  his  spiritual  vision. 

11  Not  mine  to  look  where  cherubim 
And  seraphs  may  not  see.     .    .    . 

"I  dimly  guess  from  blessings  known 
Of  greater  out  of  sight.     .     .     . 

"  I  know  not  what  the  future  hath 
Of  marvel  or  surprise, 
Assured  alone  that  life  and  death 
His  mercy  underlies. 

"I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 
Their  fronded  palms  in  air; 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care." 

Once  when  remarking  upon  the  belief  which  a  friend 
entertained  concerning  the  materialization  of  spirits,  he 
said,  "  I  never  saw  a  ghost.  No  spirit  ever  came  back  to 
me."  The  fact,  that  no  visitor,  however  highly  gifted 
with  mediumistic  power,  was  ever  able  to  invoke  or  mate- 
rialize an  unseen  spirit  at  "  Oak  Knoll,"  was  highly  grati- 
fying to  him.  His  vision  did  not  reach  beyond  the  limit 
of  human  capacity.  He  looked  upon  immortal  life  as  up- 
on a  vast  ocean  upon  which  was  everywhere  inscribed  the 
Law  of  Love.  Love  for  the  Creator  of  all  existences, — 
and  good  will  unto  all  Mankind,  were  the  shining  lights 
which  illumined  its  surface  and  made  a  trust  in  its  hidden 
joys  satisfying  to  his  soul. 

Mr.  Whittier  received  a  delightful  visit  from  Canon 
Farrar  of  Westminster,  England,  accompanied  by  Rev. 
Bishop  Brooks,  who  previously,  and  later,  made  frequent 
calls  upon  Mr.  Whittier.  After  Canon  Farrar's  return 
to  England,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Whittier  asking  him  to  write 
an  inscription  for  the  memorial  window  to  Milton,  in 
St.  Margaret's  Church,  the  gift  of  George  W.  Childs. 


18  JOHN  GREENLEAF   WHITTIER'8 

Mr.  Whittier  wrote  these  lines,  now  inscribed  on  Milton's 
window : 

"  The  New  World  honors  him  whose  lofty  plea 
For  England's  freedom  made  her  own  more  sure, 
Whose  song,  immortal  as  its  theme,  shall  be 
Their  common  freehold,  while  both  worlds  endure." 

Mr.  Whittier  brought  the  inscription  to  the  family  room 
and  read  it  aloud  and  that  evening  it  was  the  text  of  the 
fireside  conversation.  He  had  read  Milton's  great  poem 
until  it  was  as  familiar  upon  his  tongue  as  a  schoolboy's 
declamation.  He  rolled  the  music  of  its  exultant  periods 
upon  the  resonant  tones  of  his  deep  voice  until  we  seemed 
to  hear  the  call  to  battle  and  feel  the  shock  of  the  ghostly 
combat.  "  And  yet,"  said  Mr.  Whittier,  "  I  consider  Mil- 
ton's prose  works  the  greater  production  of  his  genius." 
While  he  appreciated  the  sublime  power  of  Milton  as  a 
poet,  he  more  highly  appreciated  the  clear  vision  and  men- 
tal vigor  with  which,  almost  single-handed,  he  waged  the 
intellectual  warfare  for  civil  and  religious  liberty  in  Eng- 
land. That  "Lofty  plea  for  England's  freedom,"  in  which 
Milton  advocated  a  free  Commonwealth,  without  a  sover- 
eign or  House  of  Lords,  a  government  which  should  be 
entrusted  to  a  General  Council  of  the  ablest  men,  chosen 
by  the  Nation,  &c.,  &c.,  was,  Mr.  Whittier  declared,  the 
foundation  upon  which  our  Fathers  built  the  constitutional 
government  of  the  great  republic  of  America. 

Delegations  of  Friends  from  England,  Ireland,  and 
Wales,  and  from  various  Quaker  communities  in  New 
England,  Philadelphia,  and  the  West,  came  at  times  to  visit 
and  hold  spiritual  converse  with  Mr.  Whittier.  After 
greetings,  congratulations,  &c.  were  delightfully  dispensed, 
a  silence  fell  upon  the  small  company  of  visitors  and  soon 
every  voice  was  hushed.  Some  one  would  then  be  "moved 
by  the  Divine  Spirit"  to  speak  words  of  counsel,  admoni- 
tion, or  of  Holy  promise  unto  those  present  and  usually 
one  or  more  would  reverently  offer  a  prayer. 

On  one  occasion  there  came  three  of  Mr.  Whittier's 
confreres  in  the  anti-slavery  and  abolition  conflicts,  who 
urgently  besought  him  to  write  a  poem  or  even  some  word 
of  retraction  from  the  sentiments  expressed  in  his  poem, 


LIFE   AT   OAK   KNOLL.  19 

"  John  Brown  of  Ossawatamie."  In  that  poem  he  con- 
demned the  rash  and  disloyal  acts  of  John  Brown,  but  he 
forgave  the  treason,  for  the  loving  but  misguided  heart 
which  begat  his  unwisdom  and  fanaticism.  Mr.  Whittier 
was  firm  in  his  refusal  to  retract  or  abate  a  single  word 
from  the  spirit  or  import  of  his  poem  ;  saying,  "  John 
Brown's  acts  were  unconstitutional  and  I  cannot  condone 
them."  He  never  consented  to  any  infringement  of  the 
Constitution,  which  he  revered  as  a  Patriot.  In  a  conver- 
sation upon  the  subject,  he  once  said,  "If  my  loyalty  to 
the  Union  is  ever  called  in  question,  you  have  only  to  refer 
to  a  letter  which  I  wrote  to  the  late  Gov.  Andrew  to  con- 
fute the  aspersion.  He  was 

"A  Patriot  if  a  partisan, 
He  loved  his  native  land.'1 

On  the  visit  of  his  friend  George  William  Curtis  and  sev- 
eral other  gentlemen  who  accompanied  him,  Mr.  Whittier 
was  urgently  solicited  to  unite  with  them  in  the  memora- 
ble mugwump  deflection  from  the  Republican  Party.  He 
assured  them  that,  in  many  respects,  his  sympathies  were 
with  them,  but,  said  he,  "  I  feel  that  I  am  now  too  old  to 
change  my  party  affiliations  or  to  enter  into  any  political 
complications." 

The  Massachusetts  Club,  of  forty -four  gentlemen,  includ- 
ing the  Governor  and  four  ex-Governors, — Long,  Brack- 
ett,  Talbot,  and  Claflin,  on  July  eighth,  eighteen  hundred 
and  eighty-four,  came  and  partook  of  strawberries,  cream, 
and  other  light  refreshments,  greatly  to  Mr.  Whittier's 
pleasure  and  gratification.  In  fact  there  were  few  months 
in  the  year  when  he  was  not  favored  by  the  experience 
of  some  such  happy  event. 

Mr.  Whittier  was  never  reticent  in  regard  to  his  poems 
when  he  was  writing  them.  He  often  enjoyed  listening 
to  the  reading  of  them,  commenting  upon  them,  and  re- 
lating some  circumstances  of  their  conception,  &c.  The 
short  poem,  "  What  of  the  Day,"  is  an  instance  of  his  pro- 
phetic inspiration.  "  I  wrote  that  poem  two  years  before 
the  Civil  War  broke  out.  I  was  in  my  garden  one  morn- 
ing, when  I  dropped  my  hoe  and  went  to  my  desk  and 


20  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER's 

wrote  it.  I  read  it  over  several  times  and  said  'What 
does  it  mean  ?'  I  opened  my  drawer  and  put  it  out  of  my 
sight  and  there  it  remained  for  two  years,  when  I  pub- 
lished it." 

Mr.  Whittier's  friendship  for  Samuel  J.  Tilden  was  of 
long  standing.  Mr.  Tilden  was  always  in  sympathy  with 
Mr.  Whittier  in  his  Free  Soil  and  Anti-slavery  views  and 
labors.  Not  only  giving  his  sympathy,  but  efficient  aid, 
in  several  instances,  to  both.  Mr.  Whittier  was  at  Centre 
Harbor  when  he  received  the  intelligence  of  Mr.  Tilden's 
death.  That  night  he  wrote  his  "Lines  to  Samuel  J. 
Tilden,"  and  sent  them  to  the  editor  of  "The  Boston 
Transcript,"  in  which  they  were  published  the  next  even- 
ing. Many  political  friends  marveled  greatly  at  the  senti- 
ment contained  in  those  lines,  coming,  as  they  did,  so  soon 
after  the  preceding  memorable  presidential  election.  After 
Mr.  Whittier  returned  to  "Oak  Knoll,"  he  was  asked 
how  he  came  to  write  that  poem.  He  replied  with  some 
emotion,  "  Why,  I  had  to  do  it.  It  was  due  to  him,  from 
me." 

Mr.  Whittier's  poem,  "  A  Cry  of  a  Lost  Soul,"  was  so 
highly  appreciated  by  Dom  Pedro,  then  Emperor  of  Brazil, 
that  he  personally  translated  it  into  the  Portuguese  lan- 
guage. With  much  difficulty  he  obtained  a  pair  of  the 
Amazonian  birds,  had  them  preserved  and  mounted,  and 
then  sent  them  to  Mr.  Whittier.  Unfortunately  they  were 
afterward  destroyed  by  his  housekeeper  in  a  New  England 
joust  of  house  cleaning.  The  friendship  between  the 
Poet  and  the  Emperor,  thus  inaugurated,  was  maintained 
for  years,  until  Dom  Pedro  abdicated  and  retired  to  Port- 
ugal, from  whence  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Whittier,  who  was 
afterwards  kept  informed  by  cable  of  his  illness  and  death. 

After  Mr.  Whittier  passed  his  seventieth  anniversary, 
he  published  more  than  one  hundred  poems,  nearly  all  of 
which  were  written  in  the  retirement  of  his  home  at  "  Oak 
Knoll."  As  they  were  sent  forth  to  the  public,  there 
came  back  to  him  many  letters  of  congratulation,  of  grat- 
itude and  of  thankfulness,  according  as  they  met  the 
moods  or  needs  of  their  readers. 

Rhyming  was  not  a  natural  gift  to  Mr.  Whittier,  it  was 


LIFE   AT  OAK   KNOLL.  21 

rather  an  acquired  habit,  contracted  when  a  lad  from  the 
rhyming  melodies  of  Robert  Burns  and  the  verse  of  other 
early  bards.  He  often  engrafted  some  afterthought  or 
suggested  incident  into  a  ballad  or  poem  which  had  been 
nearly,  or  quite,  completed,  thus  necessitating  more  or  less 
change  in  the  entire  construction.  When  this  occurred, 
the  debris  of  reconstruction  was  usually  somewhat  dis- 
figured before  consignment  to  his  waste  basket.  It  is  well 
to  pay  that  deferential  reverence  to  his  memory  which 
withholds  from  public  scrutiny  those  musty  fragments 
which  their  author  consigned  to  oblivion.  It  was  never 
the  poem,  existing  in  his  inner  consciousness,  which  halted 
and  marked  his  manuscript  with  changes,  but  the  lack  of 
fitting  words  wherewith  to  clothe  the  conceptions  of  his 
mind.  The  ringing  of  the  bells  of  harmony  was  always 
clear  to  his  inward  ear.  It  required  no  whip  or  spur  to 
subordinate  his  genius  to  the  march  of  conflict  in  the  great 
moral  warfares  of  his  fellow-men, — no  long-drawn  pre- 
ludes to  attune  his,  lyre  to  the  sweet  harmonies  of  nature, 
or  his  harp-strings  to  the  sad,  low  requiems  he  sang  for 
those  whom  he  loved  and  mourned. 

Mr.  Whittier  thought  diligently  upon  spiritual  subjects, 
and  was  found  of  discussions  which  disclosed  the  views 
of  others  upon  themes  regarding  the  exercise  of  Faith 
and  trustful  reliance  upon  Divine  Goodness, — a  term 
which,  in  his  comprehension,  embraces  the  Power  that 
controls  the  Universe.  Such  matters  were  the  fireside 
topics  of  conversation  for  many  winter  evenings  previous 
to  the  writing  and  publication  of  his  poem  entitled,  "  The 
Vision  of  Echard,"  a  poem  very  dear  to  those  who  con- 
templated with  its  author  each  point  of  that  far-reaching 
and  significant  "  Vision." 

When  Mr.  Whittier  was  asked  to  write  for  some  special 
occasion,  his  first  impulse  was  to  give  a  prompt  refusal. 
The  task  was  not  to  his  liking.  It  savored  too  much  of 
the  work  of  a  machine,  to  be  ground  out,  by  the  steady 
application  of  thought  upon  a  topic  not  pregnant  with  the 
persuasive  force  which  controls  and  inspires  the  mind 
when  great  poetic  themes  seek  utterance.  When  invited 
to  write  an  inscription  for  a  bas-relief  representing  the 


22  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIERJS 

"  Last  Indian  and  the  Last  Bison,"  to  be  carved  by  Pres- 
ton Powers  upon  the  granite  cliffs  which  overhang  the 
beautiful  natural  park  in  the  vicinity  of  Denver,  Colorado, 
Mr.  Whittier  declined,  saying  that  he  could  not  see  the 
figures  or  the  position  they  were  to  occupy  with  the  sur- 
rounding scenery  with  sufficient  clearness  to  enable  him 
to  conceive  of  an  appropriate  symbolic  inscription.  Long 
before,  he  had  been  presented  with  a  fine  large  photograph 
of  "  The  Lion  of  Lucerne,"  carved  by  Thorwaldson  upon 
the  cliffs  which  overhang  the  lake  in  Switzerland,  but 
which  had  been  laid  away  in  a  folio  so  long  as  to  have 
been  almost  forgotten.  After  an  evening  spent  in  conver- 
sation upon  topics  of  travel,  among  which  were  the  moun- 
tain peaks  of  Colorado  which  had  been  seen  in  their 
native  grandeur,  Mr.  Whittier  arose  in  the  morning  to 
find  confronting  him  upon  his  desk,  '*  The  Lion  of  Lu- 
cerne." With  a  comprehending  smile,  he  recognized  its 
suggestion,  and  that  evening  he  read  aloud  these  lines  : — 


"  The  eagle,  stooping  from  yon  snow-blown  peaks, 
For  the  wild  hunter  and  the  bison  seeks 
In  the  changed  world  below,  and  finds  alone 
Their  graven  image  in  the  eternal  stone." 


Mr.  Whittier  wrote  the  ballad,  "  The  Witch  of  Wen- 
ham,"  in  the  winter  of  1877.  The  previous  summer,  with 
the  little  "  Red  Riding  Hood  "  of  his  poem,  he  rode  over 
the  rolling  slopes  of  Cherry  Hill,  once  known  as  "  Alford 
Hill,"  and  around  the  borders  of  Wenham  Lake,  which 
lay  embosomed  in  wild  shrubbery  at  its  base.  During  the 
drive  he  improvised  for  his  child  companion  a  marvellous 
tale  of  the  sad  days  of  witchcraft  in  old  Salem  Village, 
now  known  as  Danvers.  From  this  little  romance  there 
came  the  happy  conception  of  his  beautiful  ballad,  "  The 
Witch  of  Wenham."  Near  to  "  Oak  Knoll,"  still  stands 
"  The  farmhouse  old,"  in  which,  according  to  tradition, 
an  unfortunate  victim  of  the  "  dreadful  horror  "  was  con- 
fined in  its  garret,  whence  she  escaped  by  sliding  down  its 


LIFE   AT   OAK   KNOLL.  23 

roof  to  the  arms  of  one  who  had  come  to  her  rescue.  The 
old  "  Witch  Well,"  may  still  be  seen  beneath  the  broad 
arms  of  a  venerable  elm,  which,  could  it  speak  like  the 
"  Oaks  of  Dodona,"  would  tell  strange  tales  of  another 
victim  who  dwelt  beside  it. 

On  a  windy  morning  in  early  spring,  Mr.  Whittier 
called  to  the  family,  "  Come,  put  on  your  wraps,  and  all 
go  with  me  for  a  walk."  The  air  was  crisp  with  frost  and 
the  lawns  were  sparkling  in  the  glow  of  sunshine.  We 
walked  to  a  rising  knoll  which  overlooked  the  meadow 
dotted  with  wild  growths,  through  which  Beaver  Brook 
here  and  there  disclosed  itself  in  little  pools.  Beyond 
the  meadow  arose  slopes  of  hills  where  stood  old  farm- 
houses half  hidden  by  sheltering  pines.  The  winds  swayed 
the  leafless  branches  of  the  tall  trees  and  threatened  us  with 
the  "Trial  of  the  Winds"  in  the  old  fable.  Mr.  Whittier 
caught  from  the  winds,  the  green  hill  slopes,  and  the 
winding  brook,  a  happy  inspiration  for  the  closing  stanzas 
of  his  ballad,  and  abruptly  returned  to  his  study.  In  the 
evening  of  that  day  he  read  to  us  from  his  manuscript  the 
entire  ballad  "The  Witch  of  Wenham."  He  was  a 
good  reader  of  his  own,  as  well  as  of  other  poems,  and  a 
rare  interpreter  of  the  lyrics  of  Burns.  While  we  lis- 
tened to  the  unfolding  incidents  of  the  ballad,  our  minds 
caught  something  of  the  vivid  power  of  the  reader,  and 
we  seemed,  with  him,  to  hear  the  "  Hebrew's  old  refrain," 
to  behold  with  him  the  "  fair  face  of  Wenham  Lake,"  and 
to  hear  the  "  wheeling  flight "  of  the  "  blind  bats  on  their 
leathern  wings."  With  "Man  and  Maid"  we  sped  "Along 
the  wild  wood  paths,  the  bridgeless  stream  we  swam  ;" 


At  set  of  noon  we  passed  the  Bass, 
At  sunrise  Agawam." 


With  them,  we  "Shared  the  sweet  relief,"  when,  "In 
the  red  sun-down,"  they  came  in  safety  to  that  "  Friendly 
door  ...  in  distant  Bervvicktown."  How  sweetly  sang 
the  song  birds, 


24  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER'S 

"  When  once  more  by  Beaver-dam 

The  meadow  lark  outsang 
And  once  again,  on  all  the  hills, 
The  early  violets  sprang. 

"  And  all  the  windy  pasture  slopes 

Lay  green  within  the  arms 
Of  creeks  that  bore  the  salted  sea 
To  pleasant  inland  farms." 


In  reply  to  the  question,  "  Which  of  all  your  ballads  do 
you  like  the  best?  "  Mr.  Whittier  answered,  "  Hugh  Tal- 
lant's  Sycamores."  Mr.  James  T.  Brady,  an  eminent  jurist 
and  political  leader  in  New  York  City,  once  expressed  his 
appreciation  of  that  ballad  in  a  letter  to  its  author.  These 
two  gentlemen,  one  a  practical  man  of  the  world,  and  the 
other  a  poet,  possessed  many  common  bonds  of  sympathy. 
They  were  both  bachelors,  and  both  were  earnest  defend- 
ers of  Right  against  Wrong,  according  to  their  individual 
understanding  of  those  attributes.  Judge  Brady's  letter 
is  an  exceedingly  interesting  one, — much  read  and  prized 
by  Mr.  Whittier. 


New  York,  Mar.  5,  1866. 
Mr.  John  G.  Whittier: 
My  Dear  Sir:— 

I  am  a  stranger  to  you  personally,  but  have  long  been 
familiar  with  your  intelligence  and  spirit,  your  poetry 
being  a  darling  of  my  heart,  which  I  have  hugged  closely 
for  years.  My  admiration  must  at  least  be  deemed  im- 
partial, for  I  am  a  Catholic,  and  know  what  you  have  writ- 
ten about  Pio  Nono.  I  was  a  Democrat  of  the  Southern 
class,  and  know  how  much  your  thoughts  did  to  keep 
alive  the  effort,  which  I  thank  God  has  resulted  in  the 
abolition  of  slavery.  I  am  of  Irish  parentage,  and  it  is  a 
source  of  great  pleasure  and  mirth  to  my  friends  and  my- 
self that  I  can  challenge  all  the  literature  of  Erin  to  fur- 
nish one  description  so  thoroughly  Irish  as  your  portrait 


LIFE   AT   OAK   KNOLL.  25 

of  Hugh  Tallant  in  the  "  Sycamores."  I  think  it  is  the 
most  racy  and  rollicking,  as  well  as  truthful  representation 
of  the  Milesian  that  ever  came  to  my  notice.  You  have 
learned  long  since  that  Tom  Moore  did  not  write  Irish 
poetry,  but  treats  Irish  subjects  with  Oriental  imagery. 
The  poets  of  '48,  particularly  Tom  Davis,  have  done  much 
better,  but  the  odor  of  the  brogue  is  stronger  in  Hugh 
Tallant  than  in  even  their  pictures. 

I  am  impelled  to  address  you  because  I  have  just  wiped 
from  my  eyes  the  tears  called  to  them  by  your  "  Snow- 
bound," and  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  I  thank  you 
for  the  spiritual  enjoyment  you  have  furnished  in  this 
exquisite  poem,  and  for  your  grand  idea — 


"  That  Life  is  ever  Lord  of  Death, 
And  Love  can  never  lose  its  own.' 


I  hope  you  will  be  pleased  to  know  that  a  lawyer  of 
fifty  years  old,  and  an  old  bachelor  at  that,  still  keeps 
alive  in  his  soul  the  most  unflying  fondness  for  poetry. 

As  to  being  an  Old  Bachelor,  I  care  little  for  that  now, 
seeing  how  gracefully  you  have  presented  an  Old  Maid* 
in  your  last  sweet  production. 

Yours  very  truly, 

JAS.  T.  BRADY. 


In  familiar  family  converse  by  a  winter's  fireside,  Mr. 
Whittier  was  asked  why  he  never  married.  He  made  this 
reply,  which  at  the  time  was  made  note  of  by  the  writer : 
"  Matrimony  was  never  a  success  in  my  family.  My  moth- 
er and  my  sister  Elisabeth  were  my  especial  care  while 
they  lived,  and  I  think  with  St.  Paul,  that  while  those 
who  marry  do  well,  many  who  do  not  marry  do  better." 

*T  be  Old  Maid  referred  to  was  the  "  Aunt  Mercy  "  in  "  Snow-bound.'* 

"  The  sweetest  woman  ever  Fate, 
Perverse,  denied  a  household  mate.' 


26  JOHN  GREENLEAF   WHITTIER'S 

Those  friendships  of  his  youth  and  manhood  which  have 
afforded  themes  for  speculative  authors  to  magnify  and 
elaborate  into  "  grievous  disappointments  in  love,"  were 
unreservedly  talked  about  in  reminiscent  moods ;  and, 
"  between  the  lines,"  it  was  not  difficult  to  understand 
why  Mr.  Whittier  lived  and  died  a  bachelor.  If  any  one 
of  the  many  women  whose  friendship  was  dear  to  Mr. 
Whittier,  took  a  deeper  or  more  lasting  hold  upon  his 
affections,  that  hold  was  never  deep  nor  strong  enough  to 
guarantee  to  him  the  bonds  of  matrimony.  He  once  told 
us  of  a  young  Quaker  lady  whom  he  met  for  the  first  time 
at  Friends'  Yearly  Meeting,  who  was  then  and  always  the 
most  beautiful  woman  he  ever  saw.  Had  he  then  been  in 
circumstances  to  have  engaged  her  affections  for  him,  his 
life  would  doubtless  have  been  different  in  many  ways. 
In  youth  and  in  old  age,  the  lady  in  the  case  was  ever  a 
most  lovely  and  beautiful  woman. 

Mr.  Whittier  never  wished  to  "  fight  his  battles  o'er ; " 
he1  preferred  rather  to  contemplate  the  results  of  the 
dreadful  conflict  for  emancipation  than  to  recall  its  awful 
scertes  of  human  slaughter.  He  gave  the  best  of  his  life 
to  an  untiring  advocacy  of  the  cause  of  freedom  for  the 
slaves,  and  when,  at  last,  the  great  proclamation  was  sent 
over  our  vast  country  making  good  the  declaration  of  our 
fathers  that  "  All  men  are  born  free,"  he  bowed  his  soul 
in  sorrowful  recognition  of  the  awful  facts  of  human  sac- 
rifice by  which  it  was  accomplished.  He  often  expressed 
a  doubt  whether  the  results  attained  justified  the  means 
of  their  attainment,  a  doubt  which  he  expressed  in  these 
words — u  If  I  could  have  really  foreseen  the  dreadful 
bloodshed  which  resulted  from  the  great  conflict,  I  should 
have  hesitated  and  restrained  my  ardor,  for  a  more  peace- 
ful solution  of  the  great  problem.  It  was  sure  to  come, 
some  time,  and  the  sacrifice  of  blood  was  awful."  Years 
of  reflection  brought  to  Mr.  Whittier's  mind  a  better  un- 
derstanding and  realization  of  the  far-seeing  vision  by 
which  the  massive  mind  of  Daniel  Webster  was  enabled 
to  foretell  the  awful  strife  and  horror  of  a  civil  war, 
which  his  wisdom  foresaw  would  be  the  sure  result  of  the 
policy  of  the  political  party  which  he  abandoned.  In 


LIFE  AT  OAK  KNOLL.  27 

obedience  to  the  demands  of  his  nobler  nature,  Mr.  Whit- 
tier  wrote  "  The  Lost  Occasion."  He  directed  his  pub- 
lishers to  place  it  in  the  next  edition  of  his  works,  immedi- 
ately after  his  poem  "  Ichabod,"  which  was  written  thirty 
years  before,  that  the  two  poems  might  be  read  together. 

It  is  to  be  lamented  that  Mr.  Whittier's  Biography  was 
not  and  could  not  be  written  according  to  the  arrangements 
he  made  in  the  summer  preceding  his  death.  He  talked 
of  the  matter  freely  with  the  family  at  "  Oak  Knoll," 
and  was  quite  happy  in  the  assurance  that  his  friend,  Dr. 
Thomas  Chace,  then  President  of  Haverford  College, 
Penn.,  would  perform  that  labor  of  love,  in  his  memory. 
In  a  letter  in  June,  1892,  he  wrote  :  "  I  did  not  go  to 
yearly  meeting  (in  Portland),  though  I  was  anxious  to 
meet  Dr.  Chace  there,  to  talk  with  him  about  writing  my 
biography,  which  he  has  consented  to  do,  in  connection 
with  Mr.  Pickard,  who  will  aid  him  in  obtaining  material 
and  facts,  &c."  Most  unfortunately  for  Mr.  Whittier's 
memory,  Dr.  Chace's  death  occurred  just  oijce  month  after 
Mr.  Whittier  died. 

When  Mr.  Whittier  left  «  Oak  Knoll  "  for  the  last  time, 
he  was  very  cheerful  and  happy.  As  he  sat  looking  out 
over  the  gardens  and  lawns,  awaiting  the  carriage  to  con- 
vey him  to  the  station,  he  remarked  upon  their  loveliness, 
saying,  with  unusual  assurance,  "  I  shall  not  be  gone  over 
three  weeks,  and  when  I  get  back  we  will  have  the  whole 
Whittier  Club  here  from  Haverhill.  I  want  them  to  see 
me  here,  among  these  trees,  where  I  have  taken  so  much 
pleasure  and  comfort."  He  went  from  "  Oak  Knoll  "  to 
his  old  home  in  Amesbury,  where  he  remained  a  few  days. 
From  there  he  went  to  the  house  of  a  daughter  of  his 
mother's  old  friend,  Elizabeth  Gove,  in  Hampton,  New 
Hampshire ;  and,  in  the  grey  dawn  of  the  seventh  day  of 
the  ninth  month,  in  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety- 
two,  he  died.  He  had  nearly  survived  to  the  eighty-fifth 
anniversary  of  his  birth,  when  he  left  the  burdens  and  the 
joys  of  life  to  receive  the  rewards  of  his  faithful  service 
and  to  enter  into  that  peace  which  passeth  understanding. 

The  memory  of  such  men  is  blessed.  When  they  part 
with  the  vestments  of  mortality,  they  are  clothed  in  an 


28  LIFE  AT   OAK  KNOLL, 

immortality  which  the  wisdom  of  the  world  holds  fast  and 
will  not  let  depart  from  it ;  an  immortality  which  becomes 
an  integral  force  in  the  great  moral  power  which  moves 
humanity  to  higher  planes  of  virtue  and  excellence,  as  the 
great  cosmic  forces  shape  and  mould  the  Universe. 

"  Whate'er  his  life's  defeatures, 
He  loved  his  fellow  creatures. 
If  of  the  Law's  stone  table 
To  hold  he  scarce  was  able, 
The  first  great  precept  fast, 
He  kept  for  man  the  last. 
Age  brought  him  no  despairing 
Of  the  world's  future  faring. 
In  human  nature  still 
He  found  more  good  than  ill. 
To  all  who  dumbly  suffered 
His  tongue  and  pen  he  offered; 
His  life  was  not  his  own 
Nor  lived  for  self  alone. 
Hater  of  din  and  riot 
He  lived  in  days  unquiet, 
And  lover  of  all  beauty 
Trod  the  hard  ways  of  duty. 
He  meant  no  harm  to  any, 
He  sought  the  good  of  many, 
Yet  knew  both  sin  and  folly; 
May  God  forgive  him  wholly. 


THE 

JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER 

CENTENARY  EXHIBITION  AT  THE  ESSEX  INSTITUTE, 

DECEMBER  17,  1907  TO  JANUARY  31,  1908. 


FIRST   EDITIONS   AND   PRINTED   WORKS.* 


"  The  Exile's  Departure,"  and  "  The  Deity," — first  two 
printed  poems.  From  Newburyport  Free  Press,  June  8, 
and  June  22,  1826.  Fac-similes  in  New  England 
Magazine,  Boston,  December,  1892. 

Pericles.     Broadside,  22^  x  7%  cm.  [Haverhill,  1827?] 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

Incidental  Poems,  by  Robert  Dinsmore,  Haverhill,  1828. 
Contains  "J.  G.  Whittier  to  the  Rustic  Bard." 

Specimens  of  American  Poetry,  by  Samuel  Kettell,  3  vols., 
Boston,  1829. 

Contains  "The  Sicilian  Vespers." 

The  Yankee  and  Boston  Literary  Gazette,  1829. 
Whittier  was  a  contributor. 

American  Anecdotes,  by  an  American,  2  vols.,  Boston, 
1830. 

Contains  "The  Spectre  Ship  of  Salem." 

Essex  Gazette,  Haverhill,  April  3,  1830  issue.  Edited  by 
Whittier. 

Contains  a  poem,  "The  Crucifixion,"  and  an  advertisement  of 
his  proposed  "History  of  Haverhill." 

Lent  by  Haverhill  Public  Library. 

•The  property  of  the  Essex  Institute  when  not  otherwise  designated. 

(29) 


30  THE  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER 

New  England  Weekly  Review,  Hartford,  Conn.,  Oct.  18, 
1830  issue.  Edited  by  Whittier. 

Lent  by  Connecticut  Historical  Society. 

The  New  York  Amulet,  and  Ladies'  Literary  and  Religious 
Chronicle,  New  York,  1830. 

Contains  "Henry  St.  Clair,"  and  other  contributions. 

Lent  by  P.  K.  Foley. 

The  Yankee  Almanac  for  1831,  by  Thomas  Spofford,  Bos- 
ton [1830]. 

Contains  "  The  Spirit  of  the  North." 
Legends  of  New  England,  Hartford,  1831. 

Biography  of  Henry  Clay,  by  George  D.  Prentice,  Hart- 
ford, 1821.  Also,  2d  edition,  New  York,  1831,  con- 
taining additional  matter. 

Whitter  collaborated  with  Prentice  in  preparing  this  biography 
and  also  revised  the  printer's  proofs. 

American  Commonplace  Book  of  Poetry,  by  George  B. 
Cheever,  Boston,  1831. 

Contains  "To  the  dying  year,"  and  other  poems. 

The  Literary  Souvenir,  A.  A.  Watts,  editor,  London, 
1831. 

Contains  "The  Indian  Girl's  Lament." 

The  Yankee  Almanac  for  1832,  by  Thomas  Spofford,  Bos- 
ton [1831]. 

Contains  "  Boliver,"  and  "The  Cities  of  the  Plain." 

Literary  remains  of  John  G.  C.  Braiuard,  with  a  sketch 
of  his  life,  Hartford  [1832]. 

History  of  Haverhill,  by  B.  L.  Mirick,  Haverhill,  1832. 

Whittier  was  the  publisher  of  this  volume   and    it  is  also 
thought  that  he  was  the  author. 


CENTENARY   EXHIBITION.  31 

Moll  Pitcher,  a  poem,  Boston,  1832. 

Justice  and  Expediency;  or  Slavery  considered  with  a 
View  to  its  Rightful  and  Effectual  Remedy,  Abolition 
(500  copies  privately  printed),  Haverhill,  1833. 

Anti-Slavery  Reporter,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  New  York,  1833. 
Contains  "Justice  and  Expediency." 

The  Oasis,  Lydia  Maria  Child,  editor,  Boston,  1834. 
Contains  "  Slave  Ships." 

The  Colonizationist  and  Journal  of  Freedom,  Boston,  1834 
Whittier  was  a  contributor. 

New  England  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  Proceedings,  Bos- 
ton, 1834. 

Whittier  was  one  of  the  five  signers  of  the  "Address  to  the 
People." 

The  Maryland  Scheme  of  Expatriation  Examined,  by  a 
Friend  of  Liberty,  Boston,  1834. 

Contains  "  The  Hunters  of  Men." 

New  England  Anti-Slavery  Convention.  Address  to  the 
People  of  the  United  States  by  a  Committee  Boston, 
1834. 

Signed  by  Whittier  and  others. 

Full  statement  of  the  reasons  which  were  in  part  offered 
to  the  Committee  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  on 
the  fourth  and  eighth  of  March,  respecting  Abolition- 
i[s]ts  and  Anti-Slavery  Societies,  Boston,  1836. 

Contains  "Stanzas  for  the  Times." 

Mogg  Megone,  a  poem,  Boston,  1836. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

Anti-Slavery  Record,  Vol.  II,  New  York,  1836. 
Contains  "  Bill  of  Abominations." 


32  THE  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER 

Songs  of  the  Free  and  Hymns  of  Christian  Freedom,  Bos- 
ton, 1836. 

Contains  "Voices  of  New  England,"  and  other  poems. 

Boston  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society.  Annual  report. 
(Right  and  Wrong  in  Boston  in  1836),  Boston,  1836. 

Contains  "To  the  memory  of  Charles  B.  Storrs,"  and  "Cleri- 
cal Oppressors." 

Views  of  Slavery  and  Emancipation  ;  from  "  Society  in 
America,"  by  Harriet  Martineau,  New  York,  1837. 

Preface  is  signed  J.  G.  W[hittier]. 
Letters  to  his  Constituents,  by  J.  Q.  Adams,  Boston,  1837. 

Contains  "Lines  on  the  passage  of  Mr.  Pinckney's  resolu- 
tions," and  "Stanzas  for  the  times."  Whittier  also  writes 
the  Introduction. 

Boston  Book,  Boston,  1837. 
Contains  "New  England." 

Boston  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society.  Annual  report 
(Right  and  Wrong  in  Boston),  Boston,  1837. 

Contains  "Lines  on  reading  the  famous  Pastoral  Letter." 

Poems  written  during  the  Progress  of  the  Abolition 
Question  in  the  United  States  between  the  years  1830 
and  1838,  Boston,  1837. 

Narrative  of  James  Williams  an  American  slave,  New 
York,  1838. 

Written  anonymously  by  Whittier. 

Report  on  the  powers  and  duties  of  Congress  upon  the 
subject  of  slavery  and  the  slave  trade  [by  the  Joint 
Special  Committee  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusett  s, 
April  6,  1838].  Mass.  Senate  document,  No.  87. 

Whittier  was  a  member  of  the  Committee. 

The  Liberator,  Boston,  June  29,  1838  issue. 
Whittier  was  a  frequent  contributor. 


CENTENARY   EXHIBITION.  33 

Poems,  Philadelphia,  1838. 

Moll  Pitcher  and  The  Minstrel  Girl.  Revised  edition, 
Philadelphia,  1840. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

The  North  Star:  the  Poetry  of  Freedom,  Philadelphia, 
1840. 

Edited  by  Whittier,  who  also  contributed  poems. 

American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Reporter,  New  York, 
Oct.  1,  1841  issue. 

Edited  by  Whittier. 

The  Anti-Slavery  Picknick,  a  Collection  of  Speeches,  etc. 
for  use  in  Schools  and  Anti-slavery  Meetings.  Edited  by 
John  A.Collins,  Boston,  1842. 

Contains  "  Stanzas,"  and  "  Stanzas  for  the  times." 

Visit  to  the  United  States  in  1841,  by  Joseph  Sturge, 
London,  1842. 

Contains  contributions  by  Whittier. 

Poetical  Remains  of  the  late  Lucy  Hooper,  by  John 
Keese,  New  York,  1842. 

Contains  "On  the  death  of  Lucy  Hooper." 
Lays  of  my  Home  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1843. 

Readings  hi  American  Poetry,  by  Rufus  W.  Griswold, 
New  York,  1843. 

Contains  "  New  England,"  and  other  poems. 

The  Liberty  Minstrel,  by  George  W.  Clark,  New  York, 
1844. 

Contains   "  Gone,  Sold  and  Gone,"  and  other  poems,  set  to 
music. 

Ballads  and  other  Poems,  London,  1844. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 


34  THE  JOHN   GREENLEAF  WHITTIER 

The  Stranger  in  Lowell  (anonymous),  Boston,  1845. 

Proceedings  of  a  Convention  of  Delegates  chosen  by  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  assembled  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Bos- 
ton, January  29th,  1845,  to  take  into  consideration  the 
proposed  annexation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States, 
Boston,  1845. 

Whittier  was  one  of  the  four  secretaries. 

Voices  of  Freedom,  7th  edition,  Philadelphia,  1846. 

Narratives  of  the  sufferings  of  Lewis  and  Milton  Clarke, 
Boston,  1846. 

Contains  "  Our  Countrymen  in  Chains." 

Scenes  in  the  Life  of  the  Saviour,  Ruf us  W.  Griswold,  ed- 
itor, Philadelphia,  1846. 
Contains  "  L'Envoi." 

Memoir  of  Rev.  Charles  T.  Torrey,  by  J.  C.  Lovejoy, 
Boston,  1847. 

Contains  a  tribute  from  Whittier. 

Supematuralism  of  New  England  (Wiley  and  Putnam's 
Library  of  American  books,  No.  27.),  New  York,  1847. 

A  Wreath  for  St.  Crispin,  by  J.  Prince,  Boston,  1848. 

Contains  "The  Shoemakers,"  with  a  biographical  sketch  and 
selections  from  Whittier's  verse  and  prose. 

The  Dark  Eye  has  Left  us.  Music  by  William  R.  Demp- 
ster (sheet  music),  Boston,  1848. 

American  Free  Soil  Almanac  for  1849,  Boston  [1848]. 
Contains  "  Free  Soil  Paean." 

Leaves  from  Margaret  Smith's  Journal,  1678-9  (anony- 
mous), Boston,  1849. 

Poems,  Boston,  1849. 

Boston  Book,  Boston,  1850. 

Contains  "  Kathleen,"  and  "  The  Yankee  Zincali." 


CENTENARY   EXHIBITION  35 

Old  Portraits  and  Modern  Sketches,  Boston,  1850. 
Songs  of  Labor  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1850. 

A  Tract  for  the  Times  !  A  Sabbath  Scene.  Broadside, 
26^  x  15  cm.  [1850.] 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

Operatives  reply  to  Hon.  Jere.  Clemens,  a  sketch  of  fac- 
tory life  and  enterprise,  by  Harriet  Farley,  Lowell, 
1850. 

Contains  a  Letter  from  Whittier. 
Poems,  Boston,  1850. 

Letter  from  Committee  of  Correspondence  calling  for  a 
State  Convention  to  be  held  in  Boston,  March  26, 1851, 
Boston,  1851. 

Signed  by  Whittier  and  four  others. 

Hymns  and  Songs  for  the  Anti-Slavery  Celebration  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  at  Abington,  July  4, 1851. 
*  Broadside,  41  x  22^  cm.     Boston  [1851.] 

Contains  "  American  Liberty!  " 

Little  Eva ;  Uncle  Tom's  Guardian  Angel.  Music  by 
Manuel  Emilio  (sheet  music),  Boston,  1852. 

The  Farewell  of  a  Virginian  Slave-mother  to  her  Daughter, 
sold  into  Southern  bondage.  Leeds  Anti-slavery 
Tracts,  No.  10.  Leeds,  Eng.  [1852]. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

Clerical  Oppressors.  Leeds  Anti-slavery  Tracts,  No.  21. 
Leeds,  Eng.  [1852.] 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

The  Christian  Slave.  Leeds  Anti-slavery  Tracts,  No.  52. 
Leeds,  Eng.  [1852.] 

Selections  from  the  writings  and  speeches  of  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  Boston,  1852. 

Contains  "  To  William  Lloyd  Garrison." 


36  THE   JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER 

The  Chapel  of  the  Hermits  and  other  poems,  Boston,  1853. 

Autographs  for  Freedom,  Boston,  1853. 
Contains  "  The  Way." 

Sabbath  Scene,  Boston,  1854. 

Literary  Recreations  and  Miscellanies,  Boston,  1854. 

The  Panorama  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1856. 

Song  [written  for  the  Essex  Agricultural  Exhibition]. 
Broadside,  17  }£  x  &y2  cm.  [Newburyport,  1856.] 

Essex  Agricultural  Society  Transactions,  Newburyport, 
1856. 

Contains  "  A  Lay  of  Olden  Time." 

The  National  Era,  Washington,  D.  C.,  January  1,  1857 
issue. 

Whittier  was  Corresponding  Editor  from  1847  to  1859. 
Poetical  Works,  2  vols.     Boston,  1857. 

The  Sycamores,  Nantucket,  1857. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

The  Legion  of  Liberty !  and  Force  of  Truth,  New  York, 
1857. 

Contains  "  What!  shall  we  henceforth  humbly  ask  as  favors?" 

Celebration  of  the  hundreth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
Robert  Burns  by  the  Boston  Burns  Club,  January  25th, 
1859,  Boston,  1859. 

Contains  a  letter  and  a  poem. 
Home  Ballads  and  Poems,  Boston,  1860. 

Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Second  Annual  Meeting 
of  the  Alumni  Association  of  the  New  England  Yearly 
Meeting  School,  Philadelphia,  1860. 

Contains  "  The  Quaker  Alumni." 


CENTENARY  EXHIBITION.  37 

The  Republican  Campaign  Songster,  edited  by  William 
H.  Burleigh,  New  York,  1860. 

Contains  "The  Song  of  the  Kansas  Emigrants,1'  and  "Free 
Discussion." 

The  Bobolink  Minstrel,  edited  by  George  W.  Bungay, 
New  York,  1860. 

Contains  "  Up  for  the  Conflict." 

Voice  from  John  G.  Whittier.  The  Quakers  Are  Out. 
Those  who  desire  this  Song,  call  on  John  A.  Innis. 
Broadside,  12%  x  8>£  cm.  [Boston,  I860?] 

The  Quakers  Are  Out.  Published  by  Wright  &  Potter. 
Broadside,  12>£  x  8  em.  [Boston,  [I860?] 

Naples, — 1860.  Inscribed  to  Kobert  C.  Waterston.  4  pages. 
Bound  with  A  Memorial  of  Helen  Ruthven  Waterston, 
Boston,  1860. 

The  Yankee  Girl,  a  song,  with  seven  anonymous  songs. 
Broadside,  29%  x  42^  cm.  [1860  ?] 

Chimes  of  Freedom  and  Union.  A  collection  of  poems  by 
various  authors,  Boston,  1861. 

Contains  "  Eine  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott." 

Patience  of  Hope,  by  the  author  of  "  A  Present  Heaven," 
Boston,  1862. 

With  an  Introduction  by  Whittier. 

Song  of  the  Negro  Boatman.  Published  by  the  Super- 
visory Committee  for  Recruiting  Colored  Regiments. 
Broadside,  18%  x  9}£  cm.  [1862  ?] 

Lent  by  8.  H.   Wakeman. 

Only  Once,  New  York,  1862. 

Contains  "  Patience,"  and  "Song  of  the  Negro  Boatman,"  se  t 
to  "  music  composed  for  Only  Once  by  an  amateur." 

Army  and  Navy  Melodies,  Boston,  1862. 

Contains  "  Song  of  the  Negro  Boatmen,"  set  to  music. 


38  THE  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITHER 

Negro  Boatman's  Song.  Music  by  Edward  Wiebe  (sheet 
music),  Boston,  1862. 

Ole  Massa  on  his  trabbles  gone.  Music  by  S.  K.  Whitney 
(sheet  music),  Boston,  1862. 

American  Anti-slavery  Society.  Proceedings  at  its  Third 
Decade,  held  in  Philadelphia,  Dec.  3d  and  4th,  1863, 
New  York,  1864. 

Contains  "  A  Northern  Song,"  and  two  letters. 
In  War  Time  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1864. 
The  Silver  Bell,  by  Charles  Butler,  Boston  [1864]. 

Contains  "  The  Contraband  of  Port  Royal,"  set  to  music. 

Boatswain's  Whistle.  Published  at  the  National  Sailors' 
Fair,  Boston,  1864. 

Whittier  was  one  of  the  Editorial  Council     Contains   "  John 
Woolman  in  the  Steerage." 

Essex  Institute  Proceedings,  Vol.  Ill,  Salem,  1864. 

Contains  "Flowers,  Flowering  Shrubs  and  Vines  in  Amesbury 
and  Salisbury." 

Poetical  Works,  2  vols.,  Boston,  1864. 
National  Lyrics,  Boston,  1865. 

Essex  Agricultural  Society  Transactions,  South  Danvers, 
1865. 

Contains  "  The  Peace  Autumn." 
Maud  Muller.     Broadside,  19^  x  13^  cm.     [1865?] 

Memorial  of  Edward  Everett  from  the  City  of  Boston, 
Boston,  1865. 

Contains  Letter  from  Whittier. 

Good  Company  for  Every  Day  in  the  Year,  Boston,  1866. 
Contains  "Yankee  Gypsies." 


CENTENARY  EXHIBITION.  39 

Snow-Bound,  A  Winter  Idyl,  Boston,  1866. 

Prose  Works,  2  vols.,  Boston,  1866. 

Poetical  Works,  2  vols.,  Boston,  1867. 

The  Tent  on  the  Beach  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1867. 

Maud  Muller,  Boston,  1867. 

Poetical  Works,  complete  edition,  Boston,  1868. 

Among  the  Hills  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1869. 

Poetical  Works,  complete  edition,  2  vols.,  Boston,  1870. 

Ballads  of  New  England,  Boston,  1870. 

Philadelphia  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society.  Thirty-sixth 
and  Final  Report,  Philadelphia,  1870. 

Contains,  "  Oh!  if  the  spirits  of  the  parted  come." 

The  Eternal  Goodness  and  The  Minister's  Daughter,  one 
leaf,  8vo.,  London  [1875  ?]. 

Winter  Poems  by  Favorite  American  Authors,  Boston, 
1871. 

Contains  "The  Pageant,"  and  "  In  School-Days." 
Miriam  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1871. 

Journal  of  John  Woolman,  Boston,  1871. 
With  an  Introduction  by  Whittier. 

Child  Life:  a  Collection  of  Poems,  Boston  [1871]. 
Edited  by  Whittier. 

Pennsylvania  Pilgrim  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1872. 

To  Ed  ward  and  Elizabeth  Gove  on  the  Fifty-fifth  Anniver- 
sary of  their  Marriage,  29th  of  8th  mo.,  1872,  four 
pages,  8vo. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 


40  THE  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER 

Complete  Poetical  Works.     Household  edition,  Boston, 
1873. 

Child  Life  in  Prose,  Boston,  1874. 
The  Prayer  of  Agassiz,  Cambridge,  1874. 
Memorial  of  Charles  Sumner,  Boston,  1874. 
Contains  "Sumner." 

Lingering  Memories.     Music   by   D.   F.   Hodges  (sheet 
music),  Boston,  1874. 

Poems.     New  revised  edition,  Boston,  1874. 
Hazel-Blossoms,  Boston,  1875. 

Proceedings  at  the  Centennial  Celebration  of  the  Battle 
of  Lexington,  April  19,  1875,  Lexington,  1875. 

Contains  "  Lexington— 1775." 

Proceedings  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Haverhill  Public 
Library,  November  llth,  1875,  Haverhill,  1876. 

Contains  a  Letter  and  "Let  there  be  light." 

Program  of  exercises  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Haverhill 
Public  Library,  Nov.  11,  1875,  Haverhill,  1875. 

Contains  a  "  Poem." 

Narratives  of  Colored  Americans,  New  York,  1875. 

Contains  "  Hymns  sung  at  Xmas  by  the  scholars  at  St.  Hele- 
na's Island,  S.  C." 

Mabel  Martin.     A  Harvest  Idyl,  21  illustrations,  Boston, 
1876. 

Mabel  Martin.     A  Harvest  Idyl,  58  illustrations,  Boston, 
1876. 

Centennial  Hymn,  with  music  by  J.  K.  Paine.    Broadside, 
x  12 %  cm.  stereotype  proof. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 


CENTENARY   EXHIBITION.  41 

Centennial  Hymn,  with  music  by  J.  K.  Paine.    Broadside, 
18^  xl2^  cm- 
Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

Centennial  Hymn,  with  music  by  J.  K.  Paine.  Compli- 
ments of  W.  E.  Coster,  Philadelphia.  Broadside, 
19  x  12^  cm. 

Lent  by  S.  H.   Wakeman. 

Centennial  Hymn.  Music  by  J.  K.  Paine  (sheet  music), 
Philadelphia,  1876. 

Songs  of  Three  Centuries,  Boston,  1876. 
Edited  by  Whittier. 

Complete  Poetical  Works,  Boston,  1876. 

Indian  Civilization :  a  lecture,  by  Stanley  Pumphrey, 
Philadelphia,  1877. 

With  an  Introduction  by  Whittier. 

Inauguration  of  the  Halleck  Statue  [invitation  and  pro- 
gram], New  York,  1877. 

The  program  announces  a  Poem  by  Whittier,  to  be  read  by  J. 
G.  Wilson. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

Fitz-Greene  Halleck.     Poem,  3  pages  [New  York,  1877]. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

The  Tent  on  the  Beach,  Boston,  1877. 
Favorite  Poems,  Boston,  1877. 

Memoir  of  William  Francis  Bartlett,  by  Francis  W.  Pal- 
frey, Boston,  1878. 

Contains  a  memorial  poem,  "  William  Francis  Bartlett." 
The  Vision  of  Echard  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1878. 
The  River  Path,  Boston,  1878. 


42  THE  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER 

Essex  Institute  Historical  Collections,  Vol.  XV.,  Salem, 
1878. 

Contains  "Account  of  the  Commemoration  of  the  Fifth  Half- 
Century  of  the  Landing  of  Gov.  John  Endecott,"  with  a 
Letter  from  Whittier. 

Tributes  to  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  at  the  Funeral  Ser- 
vices, May  28,  1879,  Boston,  1879. 

Contains  a  poem,  "Garrison." 

William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  His  Times,  by  Oliver  John- 
son, Boston,  1879. 

With  an  Introduction  by  Whittier. 

Bronze  Group  commemorating  Emancipation.  A  Gift  to 
the  City  of  Boston  from  Hon.  Moses  Kimball  [Bos- 
ton], 1879. 

Contains  a  "  Poem  "  by  Whittier. 
Poems  of  the  Old  South,  Boston,  1879. 
Contains  "  In  the  Old  South  Church." 

The  Life,  Travels,  and  Literary  Career  of  Bayard  Taylor, 
by  Russell  H.  Con  well,  Boston,  1879. 

Contains  a  Letter  from  Whittier. 

A  Short  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Services  of  Jonathan 
Walker,  the  Man  with  a  Branded  Hand,  Muskegon, 
Mich.,  1879. 

Contains  a  letter  and  "  The  Branded  Hand." 
Poems.     New  revised  edition,  Boston,  1880. 

Whittier's  Old-Time  Poem,  Cassandra  Southwick,  4  pages, 
4vo.  [1880?]. 

Essex  Institute  Historical  Collections,  Vol.  XVII,  Salem, 
1880. 

Contains  "  Account  of  the  Commemoration  of  the  250th  Anni- 
versary of  the  Arrival  of  John  Winthrop  at  Salem,"  with 
Letter  from  Whittier. 


CENTENARY   EXHIBITION.  43 

The  King's  Missive  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1881. 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  Vol. 
XVIII.,  Boston,  1881. 

Contains  letter  on  the  "  King's  Missive." 

Grand  Banquet  given  to  the  American  Pomological  Socie- 
ty by  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  Boston, 
September  16,  1881,  4  pages  [Boston,  1881]. 

Contains  "Hymn  written  for  the  Occasion"  by  Whittier. 

The  Whittier  Birthday  Book,  arranged  by  Elizabeth  S. 
Owen,  Boston,  1881. 

An  Autobiographical  sketch,  containing  autographic  addi- 
tion*. Broadside,  23  x  37}^  cm.  Amesbury,  1882. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

In  Memoriam.  Rebecca  Chase  Grinnell  of  New  Bedford, 
who  died  July  6,  1882.  Poetical  tribute  by  Whittier, 
written  at  the  request  of  the  family,  and  engraved  upon 
a  card. 

"  She  leaves  behind  her,  freed  from  griefs  and  years, 

Far  worthier  things  than  tears  ; 

The  love  of  friends,  a  record  pure  and  good 

Of  gracious  womanhood." 

The  Illustrated  Fryeburg  Memorial,  Fryeburg,  Me.,  1882. 
Contains  "Lines." 

Biographical  Notes  and  Personal  Sketches,  by  James  T. 
Fields,  Boston, -1882. 

Contains  "  In  Memory." 

The  Bay  of  Seven  Islands  and  other  Poems,  Boston,  1883. 
Letters  by  Lydia  Maria  Child,  Boston,  1883. 

Contains  a  Biographical  Introduction  by  Whittier,  and  "With- 
in the  Gate." 

Text  and  Verse  for  every  day  in  the  year,  from  Whittier's 
writings.  Arranged  by  G.  W.  Cartland,  Boston,  1884. 


44  THE  JOHN   GREENLEAF    WHITTIER 

Jack  in  the  Pulpit  [New  York,  1884]. 

Edited  by  Whittier,  and  containing  an  Introductory  Letter. 
Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

Proceedings  at  the  Unveiling  of  a  Bust  of  Elizabeth  Fry 
at  the  Friends'  School,  Providence,  R.  I.,  Ninth  Month, 
29th,  1885,  Providence,  1885. 

Contains  "  The  Two  Elizabeths." 

Proceedings  at  the  Presentation  of  a  Portrait  of  John 
Greenleaf  Whittier  to  the  Friends'  School,  Providence, 
R.  I.,  Tenth  Month,  24th,  1884.  Cambridge,  1885. 

Contains  a  Letter. 

Account  of  the  Rebecca  Nurse  Monument,  by  William  P. 
,Upham.  From  the  Historical  Collections  of  the  Essex 
Institute,  Vol.  XXIII,  Salem,  1886. 

Contains  two  Letters  and  his  Lines  for  the  Nurse  monument. 

Re-union  of  the  Schoolmates  of  John  Greenleaf  Whittier, 
September  10,  1885,  with  Exercises  at  the  Presentation 
of  the  Portrait  of  the  Poet  to  the  Haverhill  Public 
Library,  December  17,  1885,  Haverhill,  1886. 

Contains  "  Poem,1'  and  Letters. 
Saint  Gregory's  Guest  and  Recent  Poems,  Boston,  1886. 

Inauguration  of  the  Statue  of  Liberty  on  Bedlow's  Island, 
New  York,  Oct.  28,  1886,  New  York,  1887. 

Contains  "  The  Bartholdi  Statue." 

American  Literature  and  other  Papers,  by  Edwin  P.  Whip- 
pie,  Boston,  1887. 

With  Introductory  Note  by  Whittier. 

Presentation  of  the  Bartlett  Statue  to  the  State  of  Mas- 
sachusetts by  Jacob  R.  Huntington.  Unveiled  at  Ames- 
bury,  Mass.,  July  4th,  1888,  Newburyport  [1888]. 

Contains  "  One  of  the  Signers." 


CENTENARY   EXHIBITION.  -45 

One  of  the  Signers  [Amesbury,  1888]. 

In  Memoriam.   William  B.  Goldsmith,  M.  D.  [New  York, 

1888]. 

Contains  a  Tribute. 
At  Sundown,  Cambridge,  1890. 

One  of  50  copies  privately  printed. 

The  Haverhill  Academy  and  the  Haverhill  High  School, 
1827-1890.  An  Historical  Sketch  by  Albert  L.  Bart- 
lett,  Haverhill,  1890. 

Contains  "Ode  "  sung  at  the  dedication,  April  30,  1827. 

Record  of  the  Commemoration  of  the  250th  Anniversary 
of  the  Settlement  of  Haverhill,  Mass.,  Boston,  1891. 

Contains  an  "  Ode  "  and  Letters. 
At>Sundown,  Boston,  1892. 
The  Demon  Lady  [Haverhill],  1894. 

A  New  Year's  Address  to  the  Patrons  of  the  Essex  Gazette 
[Haverhill],  1828,  with  a  Letter  hitherto  unpublished, 
Boston,  1903. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  WORKS. 


Kennedy,  W.  Sloane.  John  Greenleaf  Whittier.  His  Life, 
Genius,  and  Writings,  Boston,  1882. 

Underwood,  Francis  H.  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  a 
Biography,  Boston,  1884. 

McKinstry,  Rev.  L.  C.  A  Poetic  Offering  to  John  Green- 
leaf  Whittier,  Haverhill,  1890. 

Kennedy,  W.  Sloane.  John  Greenleaf  Whittier.  His  Life, 
Genius  and  Writings.  Revised  and  enlarged  edition, 
Boston  [1892]. 


46  THE  JOHN  GREENLEAF   WHITTIER 

Souvenir  of  Whittier.  Reprint  of  his  Autobiography,  with 
steel  portrait,  Boston,  1892. 

Clark,  DeWitt  S.  In  Memoriam.  John  G.  Whittier.  A 
Sermon  in  the  Tabernacle  Church,  Salem,  Mass.,  Sep- 
tember 11,  1892.  [Salem,  1892.] 

Memorial  to  John  Greenleaf  Whittier  by  the  Citizens  of 
Amesbury,  December  17,  1892,  Amesbury,  1893. 

A  Memorial  of  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  from  his  Native 
City,  Haverhill,  Massachusetts  [HaverhiU],  1893. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd.  John  Greenleaf  Whittier. 
Address  before  the  Brooklyn  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  December  17,  1892,  Boston, 
1893. 

Fields,  Mrs.  James  T.  Whittier.  Notes  of  his  Life  and 
of  his  Friendships,  New  York  [1893]. 

Linton,  W.  J.  Life  of  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  London, 
1893. 

Pickard,  Samuel  T.  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Greenleaf 
Whittier.  2  vols.  Boston,  1894. 

Flower,  B.  O.  Whittier ;  Prophet,  Seer  and  Man,  Bos- 
ton, 1896. 

Pickard,  Samuel  T.,  editor.  Whittier  as  a  Politician,  Il- 
lustrated by  his  Letters  to  Professor  Elizur  Wright,  Jr., 
Boston,  1900. 

Rantoul,  Robert  S.  Some  personal  reminiscences  of  the 
poet  Whittier  (From  the  Historical  Collections  of  the 
Essex  Institute).  [Salem,  1901.] 

Contains  a  fac-simile  of  a  Letter  from  Whittier. 

Burton,  Richard.  John  Greenleaf  Whittier  (Beacon  Bi 
ographies  of  Eminent  Americans),  Boston,  1901. 

Higginson,  Thomas  Wentworth.  John  Greenleaf  Whit- 
tier (English  Men  of  Letters),  New  York,  1902. 


CENTENARY   EXHIBITION.  47 

Carpenter,  George  Rice.  John  Greenleaf  Whittier  (Amer- 
ican Men  of  Letters),  Boston,  1903. 

Hawkins,  Chauncey  J.    The  Mind  of  Whittier,  New  York 
[1904]. 

Pickard,    Samuel  T.     Whittier-Land ;    a   Handbook    of 
North  Essex,  Boston,  1904. 

Perry,  Bliss.     John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  a  Sketch  of  His 
Life,  with  Selected  Poems,  Boston,  1907. 

Circular  issued  by  the  Whittier  Club  of  Haverhill  setting 
forth  its  aims.     4  pages. 


AUTOGRAPH  LETTERS  AND  MANUSCRIPTS/ 


Collection  of  youthful  poems,  20  pages,  folio,  containing : 

The  Martyrs. 

Canute  and  the  Ocean. 

Superstition. 

The  Midnight  Scene— Tradition  from  the  Banks  of  the  Mer- 

rimac. 

The  Wounded  Soldier  (dated  6th  mo.  1824). 
Ingratitude  (dated  1825). 
Montgomery's  Return. 
To  Nahant  (dated  20th  8th  mo.  1825). 
The  Comet — written  on  the  evening  of  its  first  appearance  in 

the  autumn  of  1825. 

To  the  memory  of  Chatterton,  who  died  aged  17. 
Extract  of  a  New  Year's  address,  31st,  12  mo.,  1824. 
The  Brothers  (dated  3d,  10th  mo.  1825). 
Hope. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Massachusetts  to  Virginia,  4  pages,  folio. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

The  Lost  Occasion. 

Sheets  of  paper  pasted  into  one  long  sheet. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

•The  property  of  the  Essex  Institute  when  not  otherwise  designated. 


48  THE  JOHN  GREENLEAF  WH1TTIER 

Rantoul,  4  pages,  folio. 

The  4th  and  6th  stanzas  were  rewritten  on  separate  slips 
which  were  pasted  at  the  corners  over  the  original  stanzas. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

The  Landmarks,  4  pages,  8vo. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

In  the  Old  South,  3  pages,  8vo. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

To  William  and  Mary  Claflin,  signed,  1  page,  8  vo. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection 

Letter  to  M.  R.  Hodges,  Newburyport,  April  3,   1892,    1 
page,  8vo. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Through  the  Harsh  Noises  of  our  Day,  2  verses,  signed, 
Oak  Knoll.  12  mo.  15,  1887,  1  page,  4to. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

The  King's  Missive,  printer's  copy,  6  pages,  folio. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

To  Grace  Gurteen,  of  Haverhill,  England.     Signed,  July 
5,  1890,  1  page,  8vo. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

The  Worship  of  Nature,  2  pages,  4to. 

The  concluding  poem  in  "  The  Tent  on  the  Beach,"  and  does 
not  differ  from  the  printed  version.  It  was  evidently  at  first 
entitled  "  The  Worship,"  and  changed  to  "The  Great  Wor- 
ship," and  finally  to  "The  Worship  of  Nature." 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 
Trust,  1  page,  folio. 

Written  in  pencil  on  one  side  of  a  leaf  from  an  account  book. 
An  early  draft  as  there  are  many  changes  and  interlineations. 
It  was  written  in  1853,  and  included  in  "The  Chapel  of  the 
Hermits,"  1858.  The  last  three  lines  are  written  in  ink,  prob- 
bly  when  it  was  revised  for  publication.  It  differs  very 
much  from  the  Cambridge  edition.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
leaf  is  a  portion  of  the  poem  "  To  My  Old  Schoolmaster." 
Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 


CENTENARY   EXHIBITION.  49 

To  My  Old  Schoolmaster,  2  pages,  folio. 

Written  in  pencil  on  two  pages  of  an  account  book.  Evident- 
ly the  first  draft,  as  there  are  many  changes,  corrections, 
and  interlineations.  The  poem  was  addressed  to  Joshua 
Coffin  of  Newbury,  his  first  schoolteacher,  who  afterwards 
became  associated  with  Whittier  in  his  crusade  against  sla- 
very. The  poem  was  written  in  1853  and  was  included  in 
"  The  Chapel  of  the  Hermits,"  1853. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 
Mabel  Martin,  4  pieces,  9  pages,  8vo. 

Written  in  1857  and  published  in  "The  National  Era,"  under 
the  title  of  "The  Witch's  Daughter."  In  1875,  the  publish- 
ers wished  to  issue  an  illustrated  edition,  and  Whittier 
enlarged  and  altered  it  to  its  present  form.  These  four 
pieces  contain  the  20  stanzas .  I.  "The  River  Valley,"  of 
the  Cambridge  edition. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

Our  Master,    5  pages,  8vo.     The  original  rough  draft  of 
the  poem. 

Written  on  scraps  of  paper  stuck  together  with  sealing  wax, 
with  some  passages  marked  out  or  covered  up  and  others  in- 
serted by  gumming  an  additional  piece  of  paper  on  the  mar- 
gin. The  title  evidently  was  originally  intended  to  be  "  The 
Master"  for  the  first  three  stanzas  were  written  under  this 
title  and  afterwards  were  covered  up  by  a  later  version. 

*    Apparently  first  printed  in  "  The  Tent  on  the  Beach." 

Lent  by  8.  H.  Wakeman. 

The  Slaves  of  Martinique,  4  pages,  4to. 

This  poem  originally  consisted  of  33  stanzas,  one  of  which 
(the  third)  is  cancelled  and  was  not  published.  Afterwards 
four  more  verses  were  written  and  are  attached  to  the  man- 
uscript,— these  when  the  poem  was  published  were  inserted 
between  the  8th  and  9th  stanzas.  The  manuscript  is  ad- 
dressed to  Garni.  Bailey  Jr.  Ed.  Era— Washington,  D.  C.— 
and  first  appeared  in  that  periodical. 

Lent  by  8.  H.  Wakeman. 

Rhymed  letter  to  Lucy   Larcom,  Amesbury,    25  March, 
1866,  4  pages,  8vo. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 


50  THE  JOHN    GREENLEAF   WHITTIER 

The  Wife  of  Manoah  to  her  Husband,  4  pages,  8  vo. 

Contains  23  verses,  with  a  short  note  on  the  margin  addressed 
to  John  Keese,  Esq.,  254  Pearl  St.,  New  York. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

The  Haunted  Man;  an  extract,  dated  Haverhill,  22d., 
5mo.,  1839,  1  page,  4to. 

Lent  by  P.  K.  Foley. 

Letter  to  Whittier  from  Mary  Abby  Dodge  (Gail  Hamil- 
ton), dated  Mar.  21, 1862,  accompanying  a  copy  of  "  The 
Sycamores,"  8  pages,  8vo. 

Lent  by  S.  H.  Wakeman. 

Letter  to  Sidney  Perley,  Esq.,  containing  autobiographi- 
cal information  used  in  "The  Poets  of  Essex  County," 
Danvers,  17th,  7  mo.,  1879.  4  pages,  8vo. 

Lent  by  Sidney  Perley,  Esq. 

Two  anti-slavery  letters  written  in  1837  to  Robert  Ran- 
toul,  then  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Senate. 

Letter  introducing  the  chairman  of  the  Amesbury  Town 
Committee  of  the  Free  Democracy,  to  the  chairman  of 
the  County  Committee,  Amesbury,  7th,  llth  mo.,  1853, 
1  page,  8vo. 


Letter  acknowledging  receipt  of  invitation  to  attend  the 
celebration  of  the  250th  anniversary  of  the  landing  of 
John  Endecott  and  containing  a  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  the  Puritan  Governor,  West  Ossipee,  N.  H.,  14th, 
9th  mo.,  1878. 

Galley-proof,  corrected  by  Whittier,  of  a  biographical 
sketch  in  "  Some  notable  men,"  by  Andrew  J.  Syming- 
ton. From  Butler  and  Tanner,  printers,  Frome, 
England. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 


CENTENARY  EXHIBITION.  61 

PORTRAITS,  PHOTOGRAPHS,  AND  PERSONAL 
RELICS.* 


Oil  portrait.     Copy  by  Straine  after  Hoyt  in  1845. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Oil  portrait  painted  by  Caliga  after  a  photograph  made  in 
1886. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Daguerreotype    made    in    Philadelphia    in  the    winter  of 
1844-5. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Sixteen  photographs  of  Whittier  and  «  Oak  Knoll." 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Photograph  made  in  1861,   and  one  made  in  1879  with 
dated  autograph  signature. 

Twenty-six  photographs  and  engravings   of   houses   and 
localities  associated  with  Whittier. 

Photograph  of  a  crayon  portrait  after  a  daguerreotype  of 
Whittier 's  mother. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Twenty-two  engraved  portraits  of  Whittier  and  his  mother 
and  sister. 

Gift  of  Houghton,  Mifflin  £  Co. 

Photogravure  of  a  sketch  of  the  Whittier  birthplace  made 
in  1849. 

Lent  by  Sidney  Perley,  Usq. 

Lithograph  by   Tappan   and   Bradford    [Boston],  of  the 
Whittier  birthplace,  after  a  painting  by  O.  R.  Fowler. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

*The  property  of  the  Essex  Institute  when  not  otherwise  desig- 
nated. 


52  WHITTIER  CENTENARY   EXHIBITION. 

Photograph  of  the  Kitchen  at  Whittier's  Birthplace. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Journal  of  the  Life,  Labours,  Travels,  etc.,  of  Thomas 
Chalkley,  Philadelphia,  1754,  Vol.  I.  only. 

Mentioned  in  Snow-Bound.     From  the   old   Whittier   home 
library  of  twenty  volumes. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Davideis.  The  Life  of  David,  King  of  Israel,  A  sacred 
poem ;  in  five  books.  [Imperfect  but  probably  the  5th 
edition,  Philadelphia,  1754.] 

The  only  book  of  poetry  in  the  old  Whittier  homestead  from 
1807  to  1820. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

The  original  Quaker  Marriage  Certificate  of  John  Green- 
leaf  Whittier's  father  and  mother,  dated  at  Dover, 
N.  H.,  3d,  10th  mo.  1804. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Whittier's  favorite  cane. 

From  the  Oak  Knoll  Collection. 

Sundial  formerly  owned  by  Henry  Ingersoll  Bowditch, 
M.  D.  of  Boston.  The  inscription  around  this  dial  was 
composed  about  1852  by  Whittier,  for  Dr.  Bowditch. 

"With  warning  hand  I  mark  Time's  rapid  flight 
From  Life's  glad  morning  to  its  solemn  night, 
Yet  through  the  dear  God's  love  I  also  show 
There's  light  above  me  by  the  shade  below." 

Lent  by  the  children  of  Dr  Bowditch. 

Genealogical  chart  of  two  branches  of  the  Whittier  family 
from  1620  to  1873.  Lithograph,  39 j^  x  56  cm.  Bos- 
ton [1873]. 

Lent  by  Sidney  Perley,  Esq. 


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